i help women of color
break karmic patterns &
heal generational trauma
You’ve learned how to survive.
To keep moving, to keep smiling, to keep holding everything together but inside - you’ve felt lost, anxious, or heavy with sadness.
Growing up in chaos teaches you that love isn’t always safe, that your feelings might not matter and that you have to stay small to keep the peace.
The ache of emotional neglect runs deep.
Maybe you know the quiet loneliness of wishing someone would notice your pain, or the fear that if you speak up, you’ll be too much.
These wounds don’t disappear just because you’ve grown older - they live inside, shaping how you see yourself, how you love, and how you move through the world.
And yet, there is another part of you: the part that longs to heal, to be free, to finally breathe without the weight of the past pressing down.
That part of you is brave.
She’s tired of only surviving. She’s ready to reconnect with her spirit, to feel safe in her own body, to trust her voice and to know her worth.
Healing your inner child is the doorway to this freedom. In our work together, we’ll tenderly care for the little one inside you who was left unseen and unheard. We’ll release the old stories of unworthiness and fear, and nurture a new story, one where you are grounded, whole, and connected to your own power.
This is the moment to step into the woman you were always meant to be: strong yet soft, confident yet deeply rooted in love, unapologetically you.
I’m here to help you do that.
Welcome,
My name is Lauren (she/her)
but you can call me Manang.
I am a licensed trauma therapist and shadow work coach clinically trained in EMDR, Brainspotting and Transpersonal Psychology. You can visit my therapy website here.
In this space, I offer decolonized healing services for 1st & 2nd Generation Filipino Americans living in the U.S. who want an alternative solution to their mental health needs.
I’m a therapist but this page isn’t for traditional talk therapy.
What I have to offer goes a lot deeper than the Western medical model.
My Shadow Work coaching is an “evidence based practice” that is rooted in the Filipino culture and a spiritual responsibility given to me by the Universe and my ancestors.
If you’ve been looking for a healing space that will help you tend to your inner child and the past versions of yourself in order to heal the generational trauma in your family, I’m here to guide you.
<3 Manang Lauren
My approach
to healing:
My healing sessions are intended to help you build the emotional capacity to face traumatic childhood experiences and dysfunctional family dynamics so that you can feel more at peace with your adult self.
I focus on your unique childhood experiences as a Filipino American who was either born in the Philippines and now lives in the U.S. or was born and raised in the United States by Filipino parents.
Many of my clients report the following childhood experiences that might be similar to yours:
Emotional Neglect, the experience of being isolated and left alone as a child to figure out your own emotions.
Your parents never talked about their own emotions or weren’t present enough to sit with yours. Any large or heavy emotional experiences were ignored, suppressed and avoided at all costs.
Physical or sexual abuse, the experience of being violated, punished or coerced into doing something that caused harm to your physical body.
Your parents disciplined you by spanking, hitting, yelling or throwing things at you. They may have perpetrated or failed to protect you from sexual violence.
Early exposure to alcohol or drug use; sexual content or activities; domestic, community and/or global violence.
Your parents were exposed to and assimilated into the shadows of White American culture and used internalized colonial strategies to cope with the stressors of immigrating to and raising children in a foreign country.
Distant childhood memories of being happy and connecting with adults who showed them kindness, courage and inspired them to investigate their Filipino ancestry and culture.
Does this hit home for you?
Why is doing
Shadow Work
with me different from
traditional talk therapy?
While I am able to rely heavily on my education and professional experience as a mental health clinician, I do not diagnose my coaching clients with a mental health disorder.
I do not believe in pathologizing a person for the way the react to abuse and neglect.
I abide by the same professional standards of care in terms of confidentiality, safety issues and personal ethics without having to adjust or minimize my cultural values as a Filipina American, a feminist and a single mother.
In my house, we are super spiritual, believe in karma and practice ancestral medicine.
My offerings are Shadow Work coaching through Inner Child Healing Intensives & Past Life Regression Journeys guided by Filipino psychology and spirituality.
These healing sessions are meant to reconnect you to a place in your subconscious mind where you’ll find:
hidden power from your childhood to become the type of adult your younger self needs or
wisdom from a past life to help you better understand the relationships and generational patterns that you struggle with in this life
Our sessions are about releasing from the depths of your soul, not skimming the surface. I don’t just talk to you about your problems.
I take you to the root of them and we heal from there.
Are you ready to let go?
CLIENT
TESTIMONIALS
“I love that Manang Lauren is the embodiment of the dark femme, bringing all the professional & empirical knowledge with her to help us all heal with empathy without dimming whatever lights her up. It's so refreshing to be in a circle with someone who looks like me who embraces the human experience & knows how to nourish all parts of her body (yay for the love of the green, sensual movement, & weight training). That unapologetic authenticity allows me to trust her as my guide in doing shadow work.”
-Karla R. (Dark Femme Collective Member + Inner Child Healing & Past Life Regression Client
It was a beautifully healing first session. Manang Lauren opened up about herself and experience in mental and spiritual health, which I think comforted everyone into being vulnerable. Manang Lauren is an excellent facilitator, and, she received us all with warm, calm energy. I felt seen and cared for during the entire experience.
- Katrina S. (Dark Femme Collective Member)
