i teach filipinos how to break the pattern &
heal generational trauma.
decolonized healing spaces for children of the filipino disaspora
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 bridges the gap between White Western traditional mental health treatment and the indigenous, spiritual and mystical nature of our indigenous Filipino culture, you’ve come to the right place.
I’m so glad you’re here.
<3 Manang Lauren
You’re probably feeling heavy from the weight of carrying your family’s problems.
You feel so obligated.
You keep yourself small around your elders and when you’re in community out of fear of being wrong - or worse - being seen.
Sure, you walk and talk like an adult now but for some reason you don’t actually feel like an adult.
You still feel like a child.
Like you’re afraid to make decision or you’re afraid to do something completely on your own.
You wish you could trust yourself.
You wish you would just grow up already.
I’m here to help you do that.
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 once and connecting with adults who showed them kindness, courage and inspired them to investigate their parents’ Filipino ancestry and indigenous Filipino 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 indigenous Filipino philosophy 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?
ARE YOU FEELING MY HEALING VIBES SO FAR?
