Meet Lara

Hello,

If you're reading this page, I'm going to guess you'd like to know more about my education and experience, and if I might be someone who could serve you well. In addition to what follows, I invite you to schedule a free, 15-minute phone conversation with me so we can assess our goodness-of-fit together. Simply click on the button at the bottom of this page to do so.

Regarding education, I obtained degrees in sociology & social work in 1997. I have extensive continuing education in pregnancy, birth & the postpartum period, early childhood development, parenting, communication & relationship, sexuality, spirituality, trauma, end-of-life, death and grief.

My professional experience includes over two decades of serving individuals, families and community organizations. While I worked for social service agencies early on, I've been self-employed for the bulk of my career. I began serving as a birth doula in 1992, as a postpartum doula from 2004-2021, and as a childbirth educator since 2007.  I've also worked as  a trainer for an international end-of-life doula organization, assisting folks in developing their capacity to support dying people and their loved ones. I've long provided private coaching and counselling services, run parent & baby groups geared to those living with mood concerns, and provided seminars for professionals and community associations. In my earlier years of parenting, I somehow managed to run a home daycare part-time while doing much of the above. 

In my role as a service provider, I aim to meet people where they're at, bringing curiosity, caring and compassion to the table. I'm vested in helping folks live with as much wellbeing as possible as they find ways to navigate and integrate the joys and hardships that life has served up. It's an honour to walk alongside others as they discover new truths about themselves, as they grow and heal into expanded peace and empowerment. I draw upon a wide range of therapeutic techniques, ensuring the support provided is customized to meet the unique needs of each person and their circumstances. I love learning, so continuing education courses have a regular place in my schedule, and the stack of books next to my bed never seems to get shorter.

My lived experience for myself and with my closest people includes mental health concerns, neurodiversity, parenting to my current stage of being an empty nester, caring for aging parents, being a member of the queer community, relationship diversity, living as a white person while being partnered with and parenting people of mixed racial identities, major losses as a result of death and other life experiences, working as an employee, supervisor and business owner, a range of socio-economic locations, and I'm an on-going consumer of mental health care myself -- my therapist is a gem!

I have a deep love of Nature, enjoy the arts, and being active in a myriad of ways. I'm always up for a good laugh to balance out the seriousness, and simple joys keep me going.

I hereby acknowledge that I live in relationship with the land, water, peoples, plants, animals and other aspects of Life that are subjected to ongoing colonialism. The land that most directly supports my life was stolen from the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Attiwonderonk (Neutral), Mississauga, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Haudenosaunee peoples, and the same system that perpetrated past injustices continues to harm all beings to this day. I'm grateful for our collective resilience and all the efforts to effect healing change. As a human being in my various personal and professional roles, I'm committed to doing my best to remedy all forms of oppression, facilitating as much peace, liberty, equity and wellbeing as possible. May reverence, reconciliation and liberation be.