Holistic Mental Wellness Therapy Center | Oakland CA | 94610

Grateful Heart Holistic Therapy Center in Oakland, CA helps families, couples, individuals and children with mental health, trauma, grief and life changes

  • Holistic Mental Wellness Therapy Center | Oakland CA | 94610
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Affordable and Accessible Teletherapy for Residents of the Bay Area and California 
    • Staff and Board
    • Supervisors
    • Job Opportunities
  • Services
    • Individuals
    • Relationships
    • Families
    • Children & Adolescents
    • Groups & Workshops
    • Training for Clinicians
      • Continuing Education Credits – General Information and Policies
      • CE Course Syllabus: Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy
    • Teletherapy During The Pandemic
  • Your First Session
    • Frequently Asked Questions About Therapy
    • Cost of Therapy
    • Your First Session
    • Practicalities & Fees
    • Client Forms and Records
  • Therapists
  • Internships
  • More Info
    • News & Announcements
    • Counseling Articles
    • Mental Health Resources
    • Physical Health Resources
    • Recent Facebook Posts
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Donate

← Go back

Laura Gardner

she/her

  • Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

LMFT 53622

Master of Arts, Counseling Psychology

Bio Photo

How I Can Help

I can work with you to heal your emotional pain as an experienced Marriage & Family Therapist with over 17 years of experience. These are the populations/issues I predominantly work with:

1. Individual adults struggling to overcome perfectionism.
2. Individual adults with complex trauma (growing up with challenging family/peer dynamics that are still impacting you).
3. Survivors of sexual assault, rape, and/or harassment.
4. Interracial and interfaith couples who need help communicating, and navigating differences (opposite or same sex couples).
5. Supervision with MFT Associates and PCC Associates who already have placements.
6. Consultation with licensed clinicians.
My areas of focus include relationship issues; perfectionism; compulsive behaviors (overeating, drinking, dieting, work, sex...); trauma (e.g. rape, abuse, car accidents...); couples (interracial and interfaith); and cross-cultural issues. I have a warm and direct style and whether you’re seeing me as an individual or as a couple, you will come away from our work with more choice and freedom in your life.

Passion for my work combines my interests in the body/mind connection, love of diverse cultures, and fascination with human nature. I love what I do and truly respect my clients' willingness to bring their inner world to the forefront. Let's talk so you can begin the journey to feel better.

About Me

I am licensed in both California and Oregon and am currently seeing people weekly or twice-weekly via video appointments. Using eclectic and holistic modalities, I include somatic, psycho-dynamic, gestalt, relational, mindfulness, and EMDR modalities in my work.

Passion for my work combines my interests in the body/mind connection, love of diverse cultures, and fascination with human nature. I love what I do and truly respect my clients' willingness to collaborate, commit to the process, and look inwards.

My Background and Experience

While my life and work experiences are varied and diverse, you may wonder what qualifies me to help you. I’ve been supporting individuals and couples in a private practice setting since 2006, and have been licensed in California since 2013, and in Oregon since 2021. My experience includes facilitating diversity and inclusion staff workshops at UC Berkeley; working with sexual assault survivors at Rape Trauma Services; and counseling children individually and in groups in a school setting. I am EMDRIA-certified in EMDR and have formally studied anatomy and massage, Ashtanga and Anusara yoga, and had a nearly 20-year career at UC Berkeley in various positions before and while I became a therapist.

My Approach

With me, no topic is off limits! One of my mentors recalled this kernel of truth, "Trauma and injury happen in relationship, so healing has to happen in relationship as well." I like to add humor at times in sessions (only when it’s appropriate, of course), and our sessions will include some of the following:

    ​

  • Body awareness
  • Mindfulness and breathing
  • Relatable stories
  • Questions
  • Art—like drawing
  • EMDR
  • Exploring your personal history
  • In-the-moment observations
  • Challenging negative beliefs
  • Props like pillows and blankets
  • Focusing on our interpersonal dynamics
  • Or we'll just talk!
Client Ages
  • Young Adult: 18-25
  • Adults: 25-65
I Provide Therapy To
  • Individuals
  • Premarital Couples
  • Couples
Other Areas of Expertise/Interest
  • Activists
  • Artists
  • First Responders
  • Immigrants
  • Interfaith Couples
  • Men
  • Persons Recovering from Domestic Violence
  • Persons Recovering from Traumatic Events/Experiences
  • Persons Struggling with/Recovering from Addiction
  • Persons with Histories of Childhood Sexual Abuse
  • Persons with Histories of Physical or Emotional Abuse
  • Women

Interracial Couples

Supplemental Training or Certification Completed
  • EMDR
  • Experiential Therapy
  • Humanistic Therapy
  • Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
  • Relational Psychotherapy
  • Somatic Psychotherapy
  • Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy
  • Other:
More About My Practice

I have a very strong conviction to create a more equal, just, inclusive, and diverse world. It’s important to me that we continuously fight racism, sexism, and discrimination of all kinds (especially given our current political climate). I’ve led diversity and inclusion trainings with UC Berkeley staff about privilege, mental illness, and unconscious bias, to name a few. My interest in diversity and inclusion comes from growing up in the Bay Area; having a bilingual education; working with ESL students, professors, and international executives; spending a lot of time in in the Caribbean and Europe; having queer and straight friends and clients; and being a great-grandchild of immigrants. I give either time or money to the National Museum of African-American History, the Humane Society, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, National Geographic, and various smaller nonprofits.

Types of Payments Accepted
  • Credit Card
Full Fee

$170

Sliding Scale Range

$120-$150

Sliding Scale Openings

No

Phone

(510) 594-4300

Email

Email hidden; Javascript is required.

Website

holisticgardner.com

Office Address

California

Additional Office Address

Oregon

Availability
  • Monday Afternoon
  • Wednesday Afternoon
  • Thursday Afternoon
Scheduling Instructions

Call or email to set up an appointment.

Last Updated

06/3/2023

Grateful Heart Holistic Therapy Center

We offer affordable teletherapy (therapy by phone and by video) throughout the Greater Bay Area and California. Please call us today to schedule a preliminary meeting. Our services are offered in multiple languages during day and evening hours, 7 days per week. Compassionate and dedicated, our clinicians will provide you with care sensitive and responsive to your needs.

510-394-5065
admin@gratefulhearttherapy.org

MAILING ADDRESS
360 Grand Avenue, #46
Oakland, CA  94610

TIN: 20-5284226
NPI: 1942650239

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Internships

We offer a supportive private practice internship program, allowing pre-licensed clinicians (AMFT/ASW/APCC) to earn an income, accrue hours towards licensure and develop the clinical and entrepreneurial skills required for success in private practice. During the Coronavirus pandemic, we are continuing to accept new associates, helping them to launch practices as teletherapists. We also occasionally accept newly licensed clinicians, helping them to launch their private practice careers.

Services

In response to the Coronavirus, we now focus on providing teletherapy (therapy by phone and video) to our clients. Teletherapy can be helpful to individuals of all ages, including children and teenagers. Couples and families can also benefit from the convenience, flexibility and effectiveness of teletherapy. Please call or write us today to learn more about our services.

A Therapist Website by Brighter Vision | Privacy Policy
Grateful Heart Holistic Therapy Center is a 501(c) nonprofit organization providing psychotherapy services for children, teens, adults, couples, families and groups, internships for pre-licensed MFT/LPCC clinicians
and educational opportunities for mental health practitioners.
If you are a client of a therapist associated with Grateful Heart and have a complaint, please reach out to Rayne Banneck, Clinical Director at raynebanneck@gmail.com. You can also file a complaint with the BBS at https://www.bbs.ca.gov/consumers/consumer_complaints.html.