About your therapist, Lauren Fisher

Lauren (she/her) lives in the city of Knox, near the Dandenong Ranges, on the borders of Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung Country, in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia, with her young adult human and elderly Siamese cat.

In her previous career, Lauren was a portrait photographer for over 15 years, working for large family portrait studios, schools, community facilities, and wildlife sanctuaries. Through this work experience, Lauren began to notice a strong link between the power of the arts to create positive memories and the ability of the arts to create spaces for people from all over the world to share their stories and come together in community.

While she is still a lover of photography, she now enjoys exploring all things papercraft, collage, and mixed-media art. Lately, she has been exploring various forms of creative writing and wall art that incorporate textiles and nature-based objects. Many of these have become popular modalities in her therapeutic offerings.

Alongside the visual arts, Lauren is a lover of all things dance, movement, and music, specifically dance forms from the MENAHT/SWANA regions and their modern fusions. Over time, Lauren experienced firsthand and observed in others how dance, movement, and music facilitate non-verbal creative expression, sensory and somatic awareness, reclamation of the body, and connection and healing within a community. As a result, Lauren very naturally combines aspects of Dance and Movement Therapy (DMT) into her therapeutic practice.

Born from her lifelong deep interest and self-led education in nature-based spiritualities and transpersonal arts, Lauren calls herself “a bit of a Theosophical Omnist Pagan”. Although not formally certified, her transpersonal approach has become a much sought-after and integral part of her therapeutic offerings.

You will often find her with her nose in a book, actively engaging in the arts and local community groups and going on grand adventures somewhere in the outdoors. She is also on the journey of exploring her own queer identity.

To learn more about the multimodal creative and experiential approaches that Lauren can offer within her services, please click✨here✨.

EXPERIENCE

Lauren specialises in neurodevelopmental and neurological disability care, including:

✨Autism – all levels of support needs

✨ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) - all types

✨Combined types of Autism and ADHD - “Autistic Fast Brains” or “AuDHD”

✨SPD - Sensory Processing Differences inc. APD - Auditory Processing Differences

✨Global Developmental Delay + Intellectual Impairment

✨PDA - Pathological Demand Avoidance aka “Pervasive Drive for Autonomy”

✨Learning challenges e.g dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia

✨Muscular Dystrophy

✨Alzheimer's and Dementia, inc. Frontotemporal and Aphasia

✨Tourette’s Syndrome

With extensive experience in supporting mental health disabilities, such as:

✨Anxiety

✨Depression

✨Psychosocial Disability

✨Bipolar I + II

✨Schizophrenia Spectrum

✨BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder)

✨ABI/TBI - Acquired or Traumatic Brain Injury

✨PTSD and C-PTSD

And challenging life situations, including:

✨Burnout - specialising in neurodivergent-specific burnout

✨Exploring identity, gender and sexuality

✨Grief, loss and bereavement

✨Parenting and motherhood

✨Family dynamics and intergenerational trauma

✨Finding and maintaining a spiritual path

✨Questioning spiritual, religious, cultural or societal norms

✨Experiences with non-ordinary states of consciousness - including the expansive neurodivergent inner world or spiritual, psychiatric or substance-induced

✨General lack of satisfaction with life’s direction - needing guidance, inspiration and a road map to moving forward

Lauren uses biopsychosocial-spiritual systems theory and the Social Model of Disability in case conceptualisation, with a deeply compassionate and lived experience understanding of how neurodiversity, disability, mental ill-health and adversity can often intersect and co-occur.

EDUCATION:

✨ BA in Arts Psychotherapy - Ikon Institute of Australia

CURRENT REGISTRATION, INSURANCE AND CHECKS

✨ANZACATA Tiered Membership: 58010510

✨PACFA Clinical Counsellor: 32618

✨Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance with Focus

✨NDIS Worker Screening Clearance

✨First Aid and CPR

✨Working with Children’s Check

✨Police Check

SUPERVISION

✨Lauren participates in regular 1:1 and group clinical supervision with a trusted supervisor and a small cohort of peers.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

✨ Lauren participates in regular Professional Development workshops on a range of subjects with esteemed peers from around the world.