Hello! It is good to finally introduce myself to you all, and share a little bit about how I came to Whole Connection to serve you and this community. It feels that with all that has been going on this year, important things are being often pushed aside by urgent matters. So this introduction may come now a little late, but it still is relevant that you know what is happening at Whole Connection.
So maybe I can start with a little story about myself. My name is Laia and I am originally from Barcelona, with Catalan and Basque roots. I emigrated to the U.S. 9 years ago to start a new career in psychology, and specifically the interconnection between psychology and the body. Before landing in the U.S. I had been working at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in the department of Political Science, doing research and teaching on models of democracy and the integration of immigrants in the city of Barcelona, that speaks about my interest in impacting larger community dynamics. I also have a background in dance and competitive gymnastics, which has resulted in several injuries, and a different understanding of my own somatic self. All of these seem like random threads of my past, different rivers that somehow merged into a single stream that is the work that I currently do: trauma counseling work and attachment related exploration through somatic lenses in sociocultural contexts. This is a mouthful, but basically means I look at everything that has impacted someone’s trajectory (in this life and transgenerationally) and integrating the wisdom of the body, the mind, the emotions, and the spiritual self to increase a sense of internal ease in life, through all the challenges that we face everyday.
I landed at Whole Connection after some years of working at Moving to End Sexual Assault, and later at Moving Beyond Trauma (a program of Mental Health Partners), where I helped develop quality programs and assessments for individuals that had experienced trauma, as well as working as a bilingual counselor. In parallel, I also started teaching at Naropa University for a few years. Both experiences were extremely powerful in shaping my skills and supporting how to apply them to clinical work and teaching. Although it was a very rich experience, I went through a rough period of burnout, due to the amount of work that I took on, so I decided to switch gears. I was invited to teach at the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, training counselors with a passion to work on trauma and the body. I also met Phillip Horner through a mutual friend, and he invited me to join Whole Connection as a lead supervisor, which had the mission to offer affordable care, holding a strong social justice lens around treatment, and with the purpose to make it sustainable for counselors to work in this field. This past year Phillip and I decided to co-direct and partner in continuing Whole Connection’s mission. This position suits me, not only because I can put into practice many of my skills, but also because my alignment with the values and the mission that Phillip Horner embodied at Whole Connection. It is not easy to find a workplace in which business, care for others, integrity and mind-heart are so present, and I can see the impact that this has in the community, as we try to embody this sense of holding space for others and for ourselves. In my new role as a co-director, I aspire to continue with this mission, both to make services accessible to those in need, as well as to inspire clinicians to support each other and relate to clinical work in a sustainable way.