About
The Therapist Sanctuary
Meet Lorena & Cyn, founders of The Therapist Sanctuary and learn more about our mission, vision and values
LORENA & CYN
Meet
Founders
the
About Lorena
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Hi! I’m Lorena (she, her).
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I’m a licensed clinical professional counselor, certified EMDR practitioner, and 200-hour registered yoga teacher.
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For almost two decades, I’ve been a therapist or therapist-in-training. I started out working in community mental health for several years and then opened my first private practice in 2013.
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Since the beginning of my career, I’ve had a passion for mental health, and I still have that passion.
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Along the way, I’ve also become passionate about supporting therapists and considering ways that the policies, structures and systems within our field can cultivate more sustainability and support for therapists and our vital work.
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I’m so excited to, along with Cyn, be launching an accessible and secure online community for therapists everywhere.
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The Therapist Sanctuary is an uplifting place for therapists to share heartfelt support and self-compassion and to try gentle and restorative practices designed just for us. And, for those interested, we are offering a secure space to discuss ideas of advocacy and change for more sustainability in our field and more support for therapists.
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We’re just getting started. So, I hope you’ll come join us!
If you’d like to learn more, I invite you to check out The Therapist Sanctuary story, read our blog, or join us in The Therapist Sanctuary!
About Cyn
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Hi! I’m Cyn (she, they).
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I’ve been in IT support leadership and management roles for large health companies for nearly thirty years.
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Life took me in a different career direction for several decades, but I’ve wanted to be a therapist since early adulthood. Now I’m enrolled as a part-time student in a graduate clinical mental health counseling program.
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I’ve also been married to a therapist for twelve years. I’ve witnessed how much Lorena cares about her clients and how hard she’s worked to help them.
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But I’ve also seen up close the many systemic factors that can lead to burnout in the mental health field.
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By starting The Therapist Sanctuary, we hope to create a space of support, self-compassion, and advocacy for therapists everywhere.
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As a current graduate student, I look forward to offering a place of community and shared peer support to graduate students along their path.
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If you’re a graduate student in the clinical mental health field, we hope that you join us! The world needs us, and we need each other.
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If you’re interested in learning more, check out our FAQs or contact us anytime with any questions. We'd love to hear from you!
Hi! We’re Lady and Kit Kat.
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Along with our adorable furry siblings, Daisy May and Freddie Purrcury, we’re the official mascots for The Therapist Sanctuary.
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You’ll see us in a few photos and illustrations throughout the community, and we may make a few guest appearances in videos.
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We hope you join The Therapist Sanctuary community and share photos of your furry office companions in the community forum!
Our Mission
Our mission at The Therapist Sanctuary is to create an accessible and inclusive online space of rest, heartfelt support and connection, advocacy, and mind-body-spirit nourishment for therapists everywhere.
Our Vision
Through the sharing of support, resources, and ideas, we can together envision and promote advocacy for change at a structures and systems level within the mental health field to create more sustainability and support for mental health therapists and our vital work.
Our Values
Mental health and the basic dignity and safety for all people are inextricably linked. Racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, ableism, ageism, sizeism, and xenophobia reinforce one another to contribute to widespread personal and societal trauma.
These forms of violence impact many of us therapists and many of our clients every day. We’re strong supporters of social justice and human rights and actively advocate for a society that values and supports the rights, safety, and mental and physical well-being of all.
Honoring the Ancient Traditions
As learners and practitioners of yoga and mindfulness techniques, many of which we will be sharing in this community, we wish to whenever possible acknowledge and honor the ancient (2,500-10,000 years old), spiritual (Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist) and cultural roots of the practices, which originate in South Asia and the subcontinent of India, and East Asia.
We humbly consider ourselves to be lifelong learners of these ancient traditions, and we approach these practices with deep respect and with reverence for the ethical, spiritual, and philosophical practices, from which the physical practices were inextricably born.
Land and Peoples Acknowledgement
We live and work on Cowlitz, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and Confederated Tribes of Siletz land.
We honor and respect the diverse Indigenous peoples who have been connected to this land since time immemorial, and we recognize their continued deep connection to this land, water, and community.
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We are committed to co-creating a world in which the politics of domination are no longer normalized or possible.