MEET LAUREN PARKS, LCPAT, LCPC, ATR-BC
Have you been carrying grief, trauma, or too much responsibility for too long?
YOU DON’T HAVE TO HOLD IT ALL ALONE
Maybe you’re grieving a loss that still hits in unexpected waves, even if everyone around you assumes you should be “doing better” by now. Maybe you’re carrying a quieter kind of grief: the loss of the life you expected, the version of yourself you used to be, or the complicated emotions that surfaced after your child’s diagnosis. Maybe you’re the person everyone depends on, and almost no one sees how much you hold in. Maybe you’re a man who learned to stay strong, stay busy, and keep moving no matter what it costs.
You may also be carrying trauma, attachment wounds, or years of survival patterns that made it hard to know what you feel, what you need, or who you are now. When pain has lived in the body for a long time, it does not simply disappear because life moves on.
If any of that feels familiar, there is nothing weak or broken about you. Therapy can help you make sense of what hurts, soften the pressure to keep carrying it alone, and reconnect with the parts of yourself that have been buried under responsibility, loss, or survival.
I’m here to help you grieve honestly, understand your patterns with compassion, and rebuild a sense of self that feels more grounded and more true.
*No art experience required. In-person in Hagerstown and virtual across Maryland.
Grief does not only happen after death.
Many people come to therapy feeling like their pain is too messy, too layered, or too hard to explain. Some are grieving a person. Some are grieving a relationship, a role, a sense of safety, or a future they thought they were going to have. Some are parents trying to process the emotional aftermath of a child’s diagnosis and finding themselves caught between love, relief, fear, guilt, tenderness, and grief all at once. Some are men who have spent years translating pain into overwork, irritability, numbness, or silence because that felt safer than vulnerability.
Therapy with me is a space where your grief does not have to be compared, justified, or rushed. Together, we slow down enough to notice what your mind and body have been carrying. Through conversation, artmaking, reflection, and nervous-system awareness, we work toward more self-understanding, more self-compassion, and more capacity to live with honesty instead of just endurance.
Whether we are tending to loss, trauma, attachment wounds, or the question of who you are after everything that has changed, my goal is to help you feel less alone and more able to trust yourself again.
At The Art Room, we believe therapy should feel human, collaborative, and respectful of the full context of your life. Our practice is grounded in neuro-affirming, trauma-effective care, and each clinician brings their own specialties within that shared foundation.
MY STYLE
Compassionate, grounded therapy for grief that changes you
My approach is humanistic, person-centered, neuro-affirming, and trauma-effective. I do not believe healing comes from forcing yourself to move on, explain everything perfectly, or be less affected. I believe healing begins when your experience is met with enough safety, curiosity, and honesty to finally be felt.
I work especially well with adults navigating grief across the spectrum, ambiguous loss, trauma, attachment wounds, and identity reconstruction after life-changing experiences. I also support parents processing the emotional impact of a child’s diagnosis and men who are trying to unlearn the idea that strength means carrying everything alone.
Therapy with me is collaborative and paced with care. I use both conversation and art therapy to access what feels hard to say, and my work continues to deepen through ongoing training. You do not need to come in with a polished explanation or a perfectly organized story. We can start with what feels heavy, what still hurts, or what no longer fits, and work from there together.