Meet Lauren Pollema | Mental Health Therapist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lauren Pollema and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, how do you think about risk?
Risk has always been something I have tried to avoid. My whole life I have been a planner and have been able to plan my life out in a way that did not involve too much risk taking. Beginning in high school, I knew I wanted to be a therapist and I outlined the path for myself to get from one step in the process to the next. Risk is vulnerable and scary and I much preferred to stick the the script I had set out before me. But I have also learned that the best ideas come out of taking risk and that I needed to develop some tolerance of this uncomfortability because a life without risk is not realistic. One way I have learned to feel more comfortable in risk taking is by signing myself up for things that make me feel scared. When I have an opportunity come up I will just put it on my calendar and expect myself to show up at that time well prepared. I just have developed this confidence in my future self that, even if I feel scared, I know can do it. This trick has eliminated overthinking and just allows me to trust myself. Through this trick, I have started my own business, gave presentations and hired more therapists to grow my business. I could have easily talked myself out of this risk if I gave myself the time to do so but I didn’t. I just said I was going to do it and put a date on the calendar where I expected myself to show up that day fully prepared to follow through with my commitment. When I eliminated overthinking, I realized I am a lot more capable than I was giving myself credit for.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am incredibly passionate about facilitating healing to create a culture of health and well-being in our community. My specialty as a therapist is to help clients work through traumatic experiences. I have learned how deeply trauma impacts our sense of self, safety and the wold around us. Every person has experienced trauma and it is my job to work with clients to understand how those experiences have shaped our understanding of the world and how we can alter these narratives to live more fulfilling lives. My passion for trauma was born out of my work with children in foster care at the start of my career. I learned how their trauma directly impacted their sense of safety and the impact this had on their interpersonal relationships and relationship to themselves. My passion now is to work with adults as we uncover these old trauma narratives and work to alter those narratives so that client’s can feel safer and live more robust lives. I use many different modalities to walk alongside client’s and one that is particularly impactful is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). EDMR is a tool that can activate the client’s trauma memories and help client’s processes these memories in order to alleviate post-traumatic stress symptoms. I am currently working on incorporating movement and trauma-informed yoga into the practice. My hope is this can offer a more holistic treatment to trauma that includes the mind and the body.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would take them on a tour of Denver and first go to all the best brunch spots (Devils Food Cookery, Jelly Cafe and Denver Biscuit Co). Then I would take them on a bike ride on the Cherry Creek trail because I love site seeing and really feeling a part of the city when I ride on that trail. At some point, we would stop by Amante Coffee down town for some good coffee. I would make sure to stop at the First Friday art walk or Jazz in the park and end with some of my favorite dinner spots (Linger, Uncle and Sushi Den). No trip to Colorado would be complete without a trip to the mountains. I love to take friends to Rocky Mt National Park because it is just breathtaking and you can never get enough of that place.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I believe that we all need a healthy and supportive community. I couldn’t have had the confidence to get where I am without people in my life talking my through anxiety and encouraging me along the way. The person who deserves the loudest shoutout is my mom. She talked me down many times when I let my anxiety get the best of me and I could not have made it through grad school or taken the leap to start my own business if it were not for her support and willingness to answer a phone call any time of the day. In addition to her, I have a wonderful husband and friends who are able to name my worth when I do not see it. They let me process with them and are not afraid to tell me when I am letting my anxiety thoughts take over.

Website: https://www.pollemacounseling.com/

Other: Email: LPollema@pollemacounseling.com