Lauren Emery – Provisionally Registered Psychologist – M.Ed. (AB: 7047p)

Lauren is a provisionally registered psychologist with the College of Alberta Psychologists.   Lauren works with adults providing treatment for a broad range of mental health concerns.  Her 10+ years as a front-line responder for mental health and crisis support calls has made her adept at helping clients in immediate crisis.  She ties in her subsequent training as a provisional psychologist to assist clients in the process of change once they have moved out of the acute crisis stage.  Lauren’s goals for working with clients is to help them resolve any historical challenges that haunt their current functioning and happiness, to aid clients in resolving current issues, and then help her clients become skilled enough to be confident in navigating future challenges.

Addictions

Lauren has worked with many clients struggling with active addictions. While some of her clients are aware that they are struggling with addictions, and call to work with her to manage and resolve those addictions, other clients come because their lives feel “out of control”. While working with Lauren, her clients are able to gain insight as to why they are struggling with the sense of being “out of control”. Her clients gain understanding of their addiction, how their addiction is impacting their life and the lives of those around them. Most importantly though, Lauren’s clients gain an understanding of what is driving their addiction. As this understanding grows, Lauren is able to help her clients address and the root cause. Working together, Lauren’s clients are able to reduce the triggers, and regain control of their lives.

Acute and Chronic Stress

Stress is a major factor leading to life dissatisfaction, workplace burnout, and homelife breakdown.  Chronic (ongoing/long-term) stress is known to lead to increased risk to physical and mental health.  Acute (right now) stress impairs in the moment problem solving, impacts memory and learning, and can trigger irritability and mood swings.  Lauren has many years of experience helping clients deal with acute and chronic stress.  She is very adept at helping clients to figure out the cause of distress, creating a plan to deal with the distress, and then assisting the clients in resolving their distress. 

Trauma

Trauma underlies so many different mental health concerns . Undiagnosed trauma responses may present as depression, anxiety, stress, emotional volatility, personality changes, poor decision making, memory loss, impulsivity, self-harm, sleeping difficulties, reckless behaviour, self-sabotage, negative self talk and physical illness. Everything from the nausea one person might feel every time they have to make a public presentation - which brings them backed to being mocked in grade school class for asking a question in class, or standing up to talk about their book report, to more commonly recognized trauma events such as being assaulted, abused, neglected, bullied, harassed, or coming across a scene of violence, accident, or other distressing event.

For many, single event traumas resolve on their own after a few days. For people who are repeatedly exposed to trauma in childhood, in their teenage years, as adults for work or due to domestic or other situations, trauma can build up. Left untreated trauma reactions can lead to job loss, breakdown in interpersonal relationships including marriages, parent-child relationships, and loss of friendships. Some people will turn to substance abuse, gambling, internet addictions and so on to try to self medicate away the deeply distressing emotions that trauma can inflict days, months and years later.

Lauren is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness, all recommended treatments for resolving trauma symptoms.

Depression / Anxiety 

Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health challenges clients face.  Whether depression and/or anxiety are due to life circumstances, childhood trauma, due to ongoing stress or other factors, depression and anxiety can have a significant negative impact on one’s ability to manage daily living tasks, maintain a job, parent, do enjoyable activates, or even feel like you have a place in the world.  Lauren is skilled at helping her clients move beyond depression and the commonly associated feelings of ‘not good enough’, ‘not worthy of love’, loneliness and sadness.  When helping her clients manage and reduce anxiety, she is able to help them slow down their thinking, reduce impulsive behavior, and assist in improving sleep.  By the end of therapy, Lauren’s goals for her clients are that they feel confident in their ability to find good solutions when things go wrong, feel happy about their life, and are able to enjoy the things that they want to do.

Visible Disability / Visible & Invisible Differences

Laruen has Cerebral Palsy.  As a person with a visible disability she has great compassion for clients who struggle with ‘being different’.  Whether that difference is physical disability, sexual/transexual orientation, one’s looks, visible such as skin tone, physical capacity, Lauren gets it.  As she lives in the world of ‘being different’ she is very experienced in helping clients maximize the resources they have, be creative in expanding their personal capacities, and in feeling confident in their differences. 

Lauren is aware of the greater challenges individuals with physical disabilities face.  Such challenges include reduced independence, increased difficulty in making and maintaining social connections, and overall levels of higher mental distress.  She is also aware that individuals who simply ‘look different’ can face similar biases and unconscious assumptions when interacting with others.  Lauren work with those dealing with physical impairments, visible differences, and internal sense of alienation (not fitting in), focuses on addressing the common isolation experience many people facing these challenges report having.  She helps her clients regain a sense of connection, life meaning, self-identity, purpose, and hope.

Clinical Background

Lauren graduated with a Masters in Counselling Psychology in 2022, adding to her Diploma in Psychological Assessment from 2019.  Lauren holds additional certification in crisis management, trauma informed treatment, working with LGBTQ++ populations, and working with visible minorities.

Availability

Lauren offers evening and weekend hours for her adult therapy clients. Psychometric Assessment bookings are during weekday hours for children, teens and adults.