Healing Pathways: Finding Your Therapeutic Match with Grace Lawrie

Finding the right therapist can feel overwhelming, but understanding different therapy modalities can help you make an informed choice for your healing journey.

• Different therapy modalities work for different people - there's no one-size-fits-all approach
• Top-down approaches like CBT focus on changing thoughts to change feelings and behaviors
• Bottom-up approaches like somatic therapy work with the body to access emotions and release trauma
• Therapists often practice modalities that worked in their own healing journeys
• Person-centered therapy focuses on the therapeutic relationship as the foundation for healing
• Somatic work helps clients reconnect with their bodies to access emotions and regulate their nervous systems
• Intergenerational approaches examine family patterns to understand current challenges
• Finding the right therapist may take several consultations - and that's completely normal
• Trauma can be defined as anything that overloaded your nervous system, not just extreme events
• The therapeutic relationship is ultimately more important than any specific modality

Episode Guest:

Meet Grace Lawrie, LPC – Therapist, Healing Partner, and Advocate for Neurodivergent & LGBTQIA+ Communities

Grace is a deeply intuitive and compassionate therapist who brings a holistic, embodied approach to healing. Rooted in the belief that the therapeutic relationship is the foundation of transformation, Grace creates a space of safety, curiosity, and collaboration where clients can explore their inner landscapes and reconnect with their inherent wisdom.

With training in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Gestalt therapy, somatic practices, and Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), Grace supports clients in aligning their emotional, physical, and psychological selves. Her work is anchored in anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, and neurodiversity-affirming frameworks—making her a trusted guide for neurodivergent individuals, LGBTQIA+ clients, and those navigating complex trauma, identity exploration, and non-traditional relationships.

As a clinician for queer and neurodivergent folks, Grace brings lived experience, deep empathy, and authenticity into every session. Whether supporting clients through emotional healing, relationship dynamics, or psychedelic integration, she empowers them to move from surviving to thriving—on their own terms.

To contact Grace Lawrie

Email: grace@movingpartspsychotherapy.com

Psychology Today Profile - Grace Lawrie

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Couch Time with Cat
• 2:12 Understanding Therapy Modalities
• 5:42 Therapists Need Therapists Too
• 10:09 Person-Centered vs. Action-Based Approaches
• 13:16 CBT and Structured Therapy
• 18:23 Somatic Work and Body Connection
• 22:12 Intergenerational Approaches to Healing
• 25:58 Is All Therapy Trauma Work?
• 28:47 Finding Your Therapeutic Match

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Couch Time with Cat, your safe place for real conversation and a gentle check-in.

Speaker 2: 0:07

KWVH presents Couch Time with Cat.

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to Couch Time with Cat mental wellness. With a friendly voice. I'm your host, Cat, a trauma therapist, coach, best-selling author and TEDx speaker with years of experience supporting people around the world as they navigate healing, growth and everything in between. But more than that, I'm just someone who's endlessly curious about what makes us tick and how we can live with more meaning, connection and compassion. We're coming to you today from the beautiful Texas Hill Country at Wimberley Valley Radio, and I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker 1: 0:41

This show is about real conversations about what it means to be human, how we struggle and how we heal, and today we're starting with different modalities. How do you know what type of therapy is right for you? To unpack all of this, I'm joined by my dear friend and fellow therapist, grace Laurie, someone who brings so much clarity, presence and heart to the work of healing. You're in for a treat. Grace is a deeply intuitive and compassionate therapist who brings a holistic, embodied approach to healing, rooted in the belief that the therapeutic relationship is the foundation of transformation. Grace creates a space of safety, curiosity and collaboration where clients can explore their inner landscapes and reconnect with their inherent wisdom. With training in internal family systems, gestalt therapy, somatic practices and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Grace supports clients in aligning their emotional, physical and psychological selves. Her work is anchored in anti-oppressive, trauma-informed and neurodiversity-forming frameworks, making her a trusted guide for neurodivergent individuals, lgbtqia plus clients and those navigating complex trauma, identity exploration and non-traditional relationships. Please welcome Grace Laurie.

Speaker 1: 2:08

Hi, hi, gracie I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy you're here. You're the best. Should we get into it?

Speaker 2: 2:12

Let's do this.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Okay, so you joined us for the last episode and you were so helpful and informative in helping us figure out what is therapy and what is it not, and I thought we would continue and talk about different types of therapy, different modalities. We alluded to that a little bit in the previous episode and I thought you could help us unpack the different type of modalities that clients can look for and that they can just have a good sense of what is out there, how it can be helpful for them.

Speaker 2: 2:46

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense, I think, even what is modality?

Speaker 2: 2:51

Oh yeah, yeah, let's rewind what is modality Grace Right so all of us therapists are trained in different theories and types of therapy right. We have body-based therapy. We have thought-based therapy. We are in schools of what we call bottom up or top down, right? So is it that we're going to change your thoughts, to then change how you interact and then change how your brain is actually firing thoughts, or are we going to focus on the bodily sensation, to change what's happening in the brain, that then changes behavior, that then changes thoughts? Right.

Speaker 2: 3:33

And so different people might find different modalities or ways of therapy easier or more aligned or more appropriate maybe for what they're working with, their personality type, their life experience, and I think that that's a big part, right. People maybe go to a therapist and say, oh, I hated that. And then they don't try another therapist right when that is a snapshot of how one therapist works, maybe in one particular style or with one modality.

Speaker 2: 4:08

I'm putting air quotes around this and it's not a picture of what therapy can be or what other options maybe look like.

Speaker 1: 4:19

As you're talking, I'm thinking about food. Yeah thinking about food, yeah, and different types of food and how a taco at one restaurant is not the same as a taco at another restaurant and is not indicative of all mexican food right, or even right.

Speaker 2: 4:34

If you were, say, hungry and you went to an indian restaurant and you wanted a taco, you'd be like this is the worst taco I've ever had. Right even if it's really really completely wrong yeah, even if it's really really good biryani right, it's just not. It's not a taco so I think that that's part of it. Right, like what restaurant made your taco is, maybe what therapist it is. If you're even getting a taco is the modality.

Speaker 1: 5:04

That is so helpful. Yeah, that is a really good perspective. How does a therapist choose their modalities?

Speaker 2: 5:13

Yeah, well, I can say for me and I'm sure some of this rings true for you but a big part of it is what has worked in my own life Right, a big part of it is what has worked in my own life right, like I shared, that baby Grace 18, 19-year-old Grace went to therapy and laid down on the couch and that was straight talk therapy and it didn't do much for me. So there were years between that experience and when I sought therapy again and when I went back and found kind of my therapist, like my multiple-year deep relationship of my therapist, like my multiple year deep relationship relational healing therapist.

Speaker 2: 5:49

It was somatic therapy, it was gestalt therapy, it was bioenergetics right, these things that I had never heard, those words before I didn't know what we were doing. I just knew that I felt different, that I was in my body, that I was deeply connected with this person, that that things started to get easier and lighter. And after doing that work something, some things kind of shifted in my life and I realized that I wanted to do this work with other people.

Speaker 1: 6:23

That was the path that I knew right, like I was like, of course, this is it.

Speaker 2: 6:26

This is this is what works, and then, the more that I have you know, done this work and tried other therapists the things that have worked are the things I get trained in, the things that I was like, I can see how that would work for someone didn't work for me. I'm not trained and that's and that's it right, like there's a right, like there's a lid for every pot, right.

Speaker 1: 6:49

I had a very similar experience with my therapist and I will say let's dispel the myth that therapists don't need therapists.

Speaker 2: 7:00

Oh my gosh, we need them, maybe the most.

Speaker 1: 7:03

What do you think it is about? What do you think about that? What are your thoughts around therapists needing therapy?

Speaker 2: 7:12

Yeah, I mean, we hold the container for so many people, right? I think about this often. I think about this a lot if I'm going to be out of office, right? Like that's one hour of our client's week. But, for us. We're seeing five, six, seven 30, you know, a good day.

Speaker 2: 7:32

Yeah, you know. So if you think of holding that container for that many hours a day, right, helping people really get into what they're struggling with, right, sometimes the worst things that have happened to them in their life we hold space for experiences. Maybe some of those experiences, there's so much empathy there, that right, that it it's painful to hear people that you love go through things like that right, and so taking care of us is making sure that we're also a clean container that we're not coming to those experiences with our own pain, because we need to be able to support our clients, so I would say that it's a really important resource for me in my life.

Speaker 1: 8:30

I agree, I agree, I'm right there with you. I almost think it's a moral mandate. Yeah, that we be clear enough so that we can be present with our clients, and we do walk the walk. Grace and I for sure walk the walk.

Speaker 1: 8:48

I think it's important that, whatever healer you're going with, that they are involved in their own healing journey that they are introspective, that they are learning and growing and trying and they're really dynamic because that dynamism will come into the room and that dynamism will. They will either know how you feel as a client or they will be able to relate, or they will be able to just hit that point of empathy faster. You're not. A client is not just a number ever. No, it's deeply personal and, as a client signs up with a therapist, that is personal. It's also personal for the therapist. Yeah, personal for the therapist. Yeah, we are accepting your, your story with with a lot of love and compassion, but it is definitely something that we it's a two-person sign up definitely.

Speaker 2: 9:57

Yeah, it has to be the right fit on both sides, and that's the thing is know there will always be more clients. So, if someone isn't the right fit, and there will always be more therapists, most definitely, if it isn't the right fit on either side. Find someone that is it's so worth it.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Yes, it's so worth it and it's not bad. No, but therapist feelings will not get hurt. No, no, not at all, no will not get hurt?

Speaker 1: 10:22

No, no, not at all. No, we want you to. We want you to find somebody who you will connect with and truly be able to invest in yourself. Right, that's I mean, that's why we're in the biz. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the modality for me also. That is how I learn to adopt. I guess my different modalities as a therapist is because I experienced them as a client. I thought, oh, this is very effective. I really like this.

Speaker 2: 10:55

What are you, what modalities are you using these days? I mean, we went to school together and we've done some supervision and things like that together, but when you know a therapist right, you know them even if you know them professionally. You're not their client right, like I don't know what being in the room is like with you.

Speaker 1: 11:11

That is true, I use a lot of it's called person-centered therapy. So I really that's relational therapy. My the healing is based in the relationship, in the relationship, and I also do a lot of other modalities to help support that. So, whether it's parts work, which is akin to IFS work, or somatic work, which is akin to somatic experiencing, so I try to support the person-centered with things that are action-based. So person-centered isn't very action-oriented and, as you know, I am an action-oriented person.

Speaker 2: 11:53

I'm nodding my head furiously.

Speaker 1: 11:57

So while I absolutely want to center the client's experience and their fulfillment and their becoming, I also want to give them something to grab onto while they're doing that, and so I do a lot of um, listener, this is not a modality. I do a lot of drawing.

Speaker 2: 12:17

To be clear, art therapy is a modality Well.

Speaker 1: 12:20

I do art, I do expressive arts, for sure, but I do, um, I use myself as a tool. A lot in the room, I get up, I move around a tool. A lot in the room, I get up, I move around, I move my body with intention. I draw certain things for the client. I do whatever it takes to help the client embody this new idea or feeling. So I'm very active. It's definitely not sit and tell me your story only. It's sit and tell me your story and let's do all these other things. So I wanted to touch on a few of the major modalities that listeners may be coming across in articles. Or do people still have magazines? Grace, probably not Articles. We'll stick with articles and social media. Let's start with CBT. What does that mean? Yeah, cognitive-based therapy.

Speaker 2: 13:19

So when we earlier were talking about top-down, that is a top-down therapy. It starts with your thoughts, so the idea is that you challenge thoughts that you have been having, and your thoughts create certain neural pathways in your brain. So, if we challenge those automatic thoughts and replace them with new thoughts we're actually changing the way your brain is connecting neural pathways. I practice this way rarely. I would say I am more of a bottom-up therapist, but CBT is, I would say, the most common form of therapy.

Speaker 1: 14:03

It's also evidence-based.

Speaker 2: 14:04

It is very evidence-based. It's a structure that has homework, it has worksheets. You do journaling prompts, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:17

It sounds like school.

Speaker 2: 14:20

There is a lot. It's like a lot of learning. If people like a lot of structure. They tend to like CBT is my experience.

Speaker 1: 14:28

But if you are an intellectualizer, sometimes CBT can miss the mark a little bit in my experience, but if you are an, intellectualizer.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Sometimes cbt can miss the mark a little bit in my experience.

Speaker 1: 14:34

So I like it as a, as a auxiliary, yeah same. I'm not a fan of it as a straight up yeah but I can see where there's a space oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 14:45

And sometimes you meet someone who's so good right at their modality that you're like not my lane, but for people who need that oh my gosh I'm sending them over there.

Speaker 1: 14:56

that is true. That is true sometimes. Yeah, that is so true. I don't I wouldn't say that I practice cbt specifically, but when somebody, when a clinician, really knows that modality and has worked with it for so long, they adapt it and sometimes it becomes this other being and so doing CBT with Mr Bill David I don't know, I've had Bill David in my mind all day XYZ clinician that can be a completely amazing experience.

Speaker 2: 15:33

Yeah, I mean, and that so much of that speaks to right, how relational therapy is like our point before is that if someone is lit up by the concept of cbt, that therapist is lit up by that right, they're bringing that passion to it right, as opposed to if I was forced to only practice in that way. I'd be like there's a worksheet right, like I probably wouldn't come to it with the same enthusiasm, that same kind of spark Right, I wouldn't be in my flow in that work.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Yes, yes, that was a big reason I decided to go into private practice was because I wanted to have a lot of leeway in the modality that I practiced Listeners sometimes when clinicians work at certain agencies or in different practices, they are not mandated. What would you say? They are encouraged. They are trained, trained in one modality, and so everybody coming through that agency is doing CBT work. Right. And I didn't think that that was necessarily the place for me. I needed some more latitude.

Speaker 2: 16:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:42

But plenty of places just focus on one type of modality.

Speaker 2: 16:46

Cat is what we would call an eclectic therapist. Eclectic she has many tools in her toolbox.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Yes, I think it's so fun. I think it's so fun to be able to meet the client where they are in terms of age, heritage, culture, sexual orientation, anything, religion, whatever it is. Some things will be applicable and some things won't, and I love creating metaphors and different experiences that land on them and that matter to them. If I'm treating somebody who is from where I'm from South Texas we have our own little language because we grew up in the same area and we just have different points of connection. If I'm treating somebody from Southern California, that's not going to work.

Speaker 2: 17:45

Totally yeah. I weirdly get a lot of people from New York which is where I'm from yes Listeners, yes, yes, I.

Speaker 1: 17:51

I'm from yes Listeners, yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 17:53

I'm from Staten Island, shout out, out, out, and I don't think I have an accent, I don't think that I, I don't think you would know that about me. And then I get clients who are like oh yeah, I'm from insert and it's amazing, I'm like you just find it. How did you find me? How did you find me?

Speaker 1: 18:10

Yeah, how did you know your energies? There's no way of knowing Dee doo, dee doo. Okay, let's go to somatic work. You've been talking about somatic work.

Speaker 2: 18:18

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:19

Give us a little more insight. So somatic work is work in the body. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2: 18:27

The somatic theory that I work from right is the idea that your body knows your emotions before your mind does right. So our experiences, our emotions, show up in the body in a number of ways, and the more in tune we are with what our body is telling us, the earlier the opportunity we have for emotional regulation. So, if I'm beginning to feel a little tightness in the top of my stomach.

Speaker 2: 18:53

I know that. That's my body telling me. I'm anxious. And that happens way before my brain says oh, you know what? You didn't write that email you didn't text back that person, whatever the thing is. I'm kind of chewing on right.

Speaker 2: 19:10

My body is already telling me and so the sooner I have that information and I can attune to myself, I can calm and I can self-soothe. So I really work with teaching my clients how to listen to their bodies, how to notice what's happening, Because really often when we've had traumatic experiences we've learned to disconnect from our bodies. And it is a necessary component of getting through trauma. Yes. Yes, but how do we give the information to ourselves?

Speaker 1: 19:42

that we are now safe. We're no longer in fight or flight. Yes.

Speaker 2: 19:47

One of our 4F responses. One of our four F responses. So if we can do the work to slow down and be with the body, we're getting all of that valuable information about what we're experiencing in this world. But we also can kind of relate to it from the other direction. Right, if we can calm the body, then we can calm the mind, then we can calm the anxiety.

Speaker 1: 20:15

You know, the body, then we can calm the mind, then we can calm the anxiety you know and and we can, we can work with the body in that capacity.

Speaker 2: 20:18

So it's your partner. It's your partner. So the the first somatic therapist I worked with was this thing called bioenergetics, and that is the idea that we can process any feeling, we can process any experience if we're grounded. So it's a lot of work of keying into what are our feet doing, what are our hands doing, and there are certain postures, certain positions that get us into a state where our muscles vibrate and move. So if you've ever seen an animal get chased, right and then they get away at the last second.

Speaker 2: 20:56

they do this little shake, and that's a way that they are down-regulating their nervous system. We, as humans, don't learn to do the shake, and so that stays in the body, and so what I'm doing is I am manually teaching how to make the body do the shake to be able to get to some of those release spaces. Wow.

Speaker 2: 21:18

And what we see is, you know, sometimes muscular changes, sometimes changes in fascia, sometimes changes in posture, definitely changes in breath, sometimes changes in vocal tone. There's a lot of things happening in the body that give us information about what is being stored there?

Speaker 1: 21:41

Wow.

Speaker 1: 21:42

I was like lost in your explanation. I love that. Something that is occurring to me is that you are approaching it, let's say, in somatic therapy with a client. You're coming in through that avenue, so to speak. Something that I do is I approach it through an intergenerational approach. So when a client comes in and they sit with me, we do something called a genogram. I've never used that word in session, but we really unpack the generation before and the generation before Right To see how, I say, like the trickle-down effect. That's how intergenerational trauma, but also intergenerational strength, is passed down. Intergenerational trauma, but also intergenerational strength is passed down. And so if we can get clear, if we can paint a really big picture of what your family was, like we can then start to piece together okay, what are the beliefs you absorbed?

Speaker 1: 22:47

What did you need that you didn't get? Why didn't you get it? Maybe your parents were immigrants and they had no space for that. And it's not a blaming. It's not ever judging or blaming, it's more an assessment Like this is your experience and in order to heal your experience, you really need to be honest about it. And a lot of times we want to protect our parents or our parental figures and we say they did the best we could or they did the best they could and they know they're great people and we start backpedaling because we don't want anybody to think bad about them. But it's really not about that. It's more about being honest about your complete experience and being honest about their complete experience. Right, and that's okay. They didn't have the bandwidth. Maybe they were. They just didn't know about those emotional needs. And it's okay to have great parents and to also not have had your needs met as a kiddo Incredibly common also I will say yeah, needs met as a kiddo Incredibly common also.

Speaker 1: 23:59

I will say yeah. And so while you're doing body work, I'm doing this intergenerational work, saying like let's take a look at how we got here, like what are the dominoes that fell? And I think often that brings a big sense of relief, because sometimes we think, oh, we're just this way or we're messed up, or how come nobody else has this, or we think it's a singular experience.

Speaker 2: 24:18

But if we look two generations back, it's very similar, right, right, I mean, I love that, even where those two things meet, right, like I have me. Grace has digestional issues right. My mom and dad both have digestional issues. We know that the digestive tract is related to experiences of trauma right. And a grandparent of mine fleeing, you know, World War II, you know. World War II.

Speaker 2: 24:52

And so when you look at certain groups of people right who have more commonality around, certain diseases, certain markers for things like digestion. Right, it's like oh, there was a whole group of people who had this large trauma together and then all of the people after that struggle with these food intolerances these digestive issues, higher rates of anxiety, depression, right. So both of those things and where they meet it's so interesting. So really you can take the path of intergenerational work.

Speaker 2: 25:35

You take the path of somatics. We're going to the same place, they're going to intersect, and it's where and how that feels approachable, how you want to get there, which is so beautiful. Right. And again, I know I feel like I just keep saying the thing. So you have to find the therapist that really resounds with you.

Speaker 1: 25:54

Do you think that all therapy is trauma work?

Speaker 2: 25:59

I've never thought of that question. That seems so basic. Why have I never thought of that? No, yes, right, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 26:11

That's a harder question to answer than I thought it would be Trauma is such a big word for a lot of people and it carries a certain weight or definition or experience. Sometimes people think trauma is very, very big and extreme. I define trauma, as this is not a clinical definition. This is my own, just the way I work. Yes a working definition.

Speaker 1: 26:40

Thank you, is that? It's really anything that overloaded your nervous system. It could be farting in kindergarten class and everybody laughing. It could be a boyfriend dumping you. It could be a girlfriend dumping you. It could be a boss firing you in front of everybody. It's just the large range of things that can overload our nervous system, depending on our capacity, depending on where we were, the protective factors we had at the time. So trauma I don't think is an accusation. I don't think it's like you are traumatized. It's not a finger wagging thing, it's not a weight to put on somebody. It's more just a realization that we have these experiences that happen to us and sometimes they overwhelm us yeah, I you know when you ask that question.

Speaker 2: 27:44

I think the struggle is, while all therapy might not be trauma therapy, it doesn't mean you're not working on trauma, if that makes sense right so you could have therapy where you know you come in, you say I'm just like this xyz whatever that is right and you maybe work on the behavior like I don't want to be short with my mom on the phone when I get frustrated and so you work on that behavior.

Speaker 2: 28:16

If you are sitting with a trauma therapist, you will go to the source of what does it feel like? When has that happened before? With me? Right, I do IFS or internal family systems. What part is coming forward?

Speaker 1: 28:30

Why does?

Speaker 2: 28:30

that feel protective. Why does that feel needed? So you could do the work on something that is related to a trauma and not necessarily be doing trauma work. Right, you can just change that behavior or you can kind of dig it up. Go for it.

Speaker 1: 28:44

Yeah, yeah, okay, let's close it up. What's one thing you want listeners to know about choosing the right kind of therapy for themselves?

Speaker 2: 28:52

Yeah, I would say that it takes a few consultations. So if you are looking for a new therapist, a great resource is psychology today or inclusivetherapistcom and check out a few people who offer a few different types of therapy. Right, we've highlighted some, but there is existential therapy, there is IFS, as I mentioned, gestalt somatic, Dance, therapy Dance therapy, art therapy, as many people as there are. There is personality and the intersection of modality. And you are worth interviewing more than one therapist to find someone who resonates with you.

Speaker 1: 29:36

Lovely Grace. Where can people find you online or connect with your work?

Speaker 2: 29:40

Yeah, so I am part of Moving Parts Psychotherapy, located in South Central Austin. You can find me at movingpartspsychotherapycom, or shoot me an email at grace at movingpartspsychotherapycom.

Speaker 1: 29:53

Is there a particular modality that you want to remind listeners that you work with?

Speaker 2: 30:00

I do IFS, internal family systems and something we didn't talk about psychedelic therapy. So I offer ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

Speaker 1: 30:08

Yes, we'll have to get to that in the next one. Yeah, exciting. Thank you, Grace. Thanks for having me. If this conversation clarified something for you or helped you feel a little more seen, please share it with someone you care about. You can follow along for more grounded, soulful conversations and know that this space is here to support you. Thanks for being with us today.