Introducing Lauri Budzynski, MA, LPC, NCC

Who do you help? Ideal client?
What is your general philosophy and approach to helping? Are you more directive or more guiding?
What are your strengths as a therapist?
What can a client expect to experience in a session with you?
What are your client's results after coming to see you? Intro questions?

Laurie: Hi, my name is Laurie Groh. I'm co-owner of Shoreside Therapies. Today we have Lauri Budzynski but is that right?

Lauri: Budzynski, yes.

Laurie: Okay, I'll keep practicing. I'll keep practicing. So, Lauri, can you tell me a little bit about yourself? We really appreciate you being here today.

Lauri: Yeah, Thank you so much for having me, Laurie, It's really good to be here. And yeah, so I recently joined the team in November and I'm just looking forward to just continuing my counseling career here.

Laurie: Yes. Yes. And you're in the Shorewood location. Yes. Which I love that location. It's so convenient for families.

Lauri: Yeah. Yes, great. It's a great area.

Laurie: Yeah. You can walk to it. Yes. There's so much by it. Go to the coffee shop and and come swing by you.

Lauri: Yes. Yeah. Colectivo is right down the street. So you can pick up coffee on the way.

Laurie: All right. So we're going to go through some questions. And I think one of the most important things is when somebody is looking for a therapist to find the right fit. And so what do you think is your ideal client? Who would you ideally want to see? Who do you help in a typical counseling session?

Lauri: Yeah. So I have had a variety of experiences in different locations. So I've been in an agency, I've been in private practice, I've been at a college, and so I've kind of seen a lot of different clients of different ages. So I like to say that I see clients from 4 to 94 and anywhere in between, but I do have a specialty in trauma, and so I'm just finishing up a last couple of courses or sections of the courses for trauma or training for adoption competency course. And so yeah, so I have a lot of experience working with adults and kids and teenagers with trauma at any level, any kind of stage in their trauma work, as well as adoption and foster care. And so that doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be in foster care. Maybe they were or maybe they were adopted 30 years ago, but realizing different things. And so I have worked a lot with kids and with teenagers, and I have a lot of modalities as a sand tray and art and games. But I also love working with adults. I also have a really special place in my heart for family therapy. It's probably one of my favorite areas.

Laurie: Ohh, yes. And one of the hardest things to find for people, because it can be for a lot of therapists really challenging. So that's that's really impressive that that you love it and you're in the room and able to do it and do it well. So, Lauri, it sounds like you have a wide range of people that you can see, but I also think it is necessary for that trauma piece to be in there. There's a lot of people that have trauma or trauma in their past unresolved from childhood or recent trauma. And the other piece of it is the adoption and foster care experience that is also, I believe, an underserved population. So that's great that you're here and here to help. And even better, that you can see the whole family.

Lauri: Yes. Yes. And I love and I love too like, you know, with adoption or foster care. Right. It changes the whole family dynamic. And so I love being able to work with siblings, biological or adopted siblings and parents just to kind of help better understand really what's going on in their home and that maybe it's not so different than the family across the street that's also adopted that maybe they didn't realize or whatever, whatever the situation is. And so and two, I think trauma sometimes gets this bad rap like I wasn't physically abused or I wasn't, you know, whatever. But I think there's a lot of emotional abuse that goes kind of unnoticed and unresolved and sometimes to just having maybe that bully in middle school that's kind of stuck with you or whatever it is. It doesn't have to be kind of what I call 'big T' trauma.

Laurie: Right? Right. Yes. Those things that come up for us that have hurt and changed our maybe our worldview or that have changed how we view ourselves, that can also be a big part of trauma. Yes. Yeah. I think that's important for people to recognize that it doesn't have to be what the world believes is trauma. It has to do with how it's affected you. And the other piece, I think, too, is that sometimes people won't really.. won't really feel like something has affected them. But some of the behaviors and some of the things being said or the thoughts going on really does indicate that there has been some of that. And so I think breaking it down like this is vital to say that, okay, this isn't how you would describe it, but these things have affected you and let's figure out how to heal from those.

Lauri: Yeah.

Laurie: Yeah. All right. So next question. What are your strengths as a therapist?

Lauri: Yeah. So kind of, what clients have told me is that I'm down to earth. I'm patient. I'm easy to talk to. I'm approachable and relatable. But I think, too, that something that I find is a strength. And and I just this is kind of something that's been important to me since day one of my counseling career is that I don't ever want to ask a client to do something that I'm not willing to do for myself. And so and so I think it's really important that I've also gone through my own journey of my own stuff and figured out, you know, the areas in my life that have been hard and kind of engaged in that. I try really hard to practice self-care to help me be the best clinician that I can be to meet my clients, the best that they deserve to have. And so I think, yeah, just being able to relate to my clients, knowing that I've also been on the other side of the chair, that I have sat as a client before, and I know what that experience is like.

Laurie: Yeah, I do believe all therapists and to be quite honest, I think everybody should talk to therapists because we all need it. We all need that person to run things by or help us through different things in our lives. And I think it is important to have been on that other side of the chair to know how this actually feels. And so there's this additional I feel like empathy for being in that position. And, you know, Lauri and I were talking before we started about doing these videos, brings up anxiety and working through it and doing it anyways. So that is another thing just to kind of circle back to is that, you know, we also try to challenge ourselves and each other at Shoreside and it's, it's a pretty amazing environment.

Lauri: So yeah, and I'm excited to be part of that. It's just great. It's so great to be here.

Laurie: Yes. Yeah. And I you know, I want to say too Lauri, I could talk to you for hours and hours, I feel like. So I mean, I think that's another strength as well, where if you're going to be in a room with somebody to be able to feel so comfortable and feel accepted and not to worry about being judged, you can you can feel that just by our first meeting and second meeting, it just that energy just comes from you.

Lauri: Well, thank you for saying that!

Laurie: Yeah! All right. So what could a client expect in a session? So if a lot of clients are concerned when they first start with a therapist and wonder, what is this going to be like? Do I lay on a couch, do I, you know, what is it what happens in that therapy session? And of course, they're always different because therapists are different. Yeah. So for you, what is a session like?

Lauri: Yes. So there is a couch in my office, although I don't ever ask you to lay on it, so I'm sitting on it right now. This is, it's a great couch. It's a really great couch. But yeah, no, no laying on the couch. Probably unless. Well, I was going to say maybe unless you're really tired, but then I was going to say no, because then you might fall asleep. So probably not.

Laurie: Maybe for hypnosis. Yeah, maybe hypnosis.

Lauri: Yeah. So. Yeah. So I'm not trained in hypnosis, hypnosis therapy. So that won't happen in my office. But yeah. So I really meet you where you are. So, you know, as a client coming into my office, you're probably coming from very different places than the next client. And so I really try to meet you where you are. So if you're a kid or an adolescent, you know, I might meet with your parent first just to kind of get a better understanding of what the goals are, what the challenges are, and then kind of, you know, sessions after that, if you want if the parent and child want to come in together, if the child feels most comfortable with that, then that's welcomed. Otherwise, you know, the child can come in alone. For an adult, you know, it's really just kind of getting to know you and building rapport and building trust and relationship. And I think it's important that even though, yes, I'm the counselor, you know, asking a lot of questions, that that you also have space to ask me questions too, as long as it's kind of pertinent to session and that it can be relevant. You know, it's not my time to talk about me at all. But I do think that sometimes, you know, knowing that I'm from Kansas and I grew up on a pig farm. Right. Might be interesting to you. I don't know.

Laurie: Is very interesting, that's true. It's very interesting.

Lauri: So. Yeah, So. So there's little things where, you know, I've had college students, you know, or high school students be asking me like, what's college like? Right? So. So that's where I love just having those kind of normal conversations, as well as digging into goals. So it's important to set goals. And that's just so that we don't waste your time, your energy, your money. That's not why I'm here. And so, you know, I really want to maximize the time that we have together. You know, 45 minutes or an hour goes by really quickly once a week. And so being able to have that time be focused and intentional is really important. And something that I tell all of my clients. And if you come and see me, you'll hear it again. Is that the goal for every single one of my clients is to help them to be the best version of themselves. And so whatever that looks like and you know, you're the expert on you as a client. I don't know you, I haven't met you, but I'm the expert on the situation, right? On the challenge, on the mental illness. And so together we form a really awesome team to be able to help you be the best version of you.

Laurie: Right. Right. And I think that piece is so important that there's a belief of the client knowing themselves best. And at the same time, we all have those blind spots. And that's where our role comes in, right, is to show them where those blind spots might be, to challenge some of the patterns of their thoughts that they've been thinking for a long time to do something different. But when it comes down to it, they're the ones making the decisions and they're the ones that are going to know in their gut what is the right thing. And being able to express that to you too is vital.

Lauri: Yeah, yeah. And that's where like, you know, I I'm easy to talk to, but I also say like I'm not your friend, that's not my role. And so even though I hope to have fun in session and to build a rapport, right, that I do still challenge you maybe more than I would challenge my friends, you know, in a different way, because we have that relationship aat that professional relationship. And so, yeah, like, I will, I'll challenge you and push you. And but I also tell my clients, you know, I never want you to think you have to talk about something you're not comfortable talking about. And so that doesn't mean that it won't come up in a later session once you've built more rapport and are in a different space. But I go at your pace, like I said, or the clients pace. And so, you know, it just yeah we kind of go with that and into there's a wide variety of things we can do in my office, you know, playing games. If you're really an adult too, you can do sand tray, a lot of times people don't want to do sand tray feel like it's kind kid-ish, but I think it's really great and awesome even as an adult. And so we have that. I have toys for kiddos, we have art supplies. Talking, education is really important. So there's a piece of just kind of education about what's going on. And so that might happen and, and just different approaches that I have kind of in my toolbox that every client will experience therapy just a little bit different because you're different clients.

Laurie: Right. Right. And all of those different things definitely add in to the talk therapy where if you are using games or if talking isn't your go-to when there's an issue, which that can happen for a lot of people is that they internalize a lot of different things. You know, being able to express it through other ways can be extremely beneficial. So I love that you have a variety of things that kiddos and adults can use. Yeah. All right. So let's go into the results. So share a little bit about whatclient's results look like. Again, everybody's so different, but what could somebody expect after their therapy is coming to a close or after a couple of months of therapy? What can they expect?

Lauri: Yeah, so every one, we kind of all go at different paces, right? So I can't say, oh, you know, you'll come into me and in four sessions we'll be done, right? That's most likely not going to happen. I will say though, I work a lot with resistant teens and have and so I will say with resistant clients of any age that to give me four sessions and that in four sessions, if it still is equally awful as you imagined it being, then we'll have a conversation with your guardian and decide if this is right for you. Yeah, I will say with that, I think I've only had maybe one person not continue after that. And so I think that just speaks to just who I am. And I'm not trying to like boast myself up and say I'm so great. That's not at all true, but just that I can build that rapport and have my personality just, I think, allows for me to be able to do that. And so I'm really I feel honored that I was given this talent to be able to do that. And so, yeah, so I love yeah, kind of figuring out kind of your pace. But, you know, we set goals and so we'll kind of just continue to gauge that. And so where are you at with your goals? So you're coming in for anxiety. Okay. Are you experiencing less anxiety, less panic attacks, able to sleep longer at night or more nights and not waking up or. Right, whatever the situation is. And that's kind of how we gauge progress, right, is that there's no.. you know, scale, that's just we plug it in and say, you know, once you get to here, right, you're good.

Laurie: Yes! You're good to go.

Lauri: Yeah, that would be easy, right? That would be great if that was an option. But it's unfortunately not. Right. So it's bason on the client and kind of where they feel like they're at and hopefully the symptoms are minimized. Right. So my approach is that I don't ever want to put a Band-Aid on the situation. I want to figure out why it's happening and go to the root of it. And so, you know, you're not sleeping at night. Well, I don't want to just give you techniques to just help you be able to sleep or melatonin. Right. We might explore some of those things that might be part of what helps you. But I want to figure out, why aren't you sleeping right? What is it? Is it scary? Is there something in your room? Did something bad happen in your room before when you were a kid? Right? Or recently. And so exploring why it's happening. And so with that, it takes everyone a different pace. But hopefully as we get towards the end of session, that won't be a surprise to you. We'll talk about that. We'll kind of spread out sessions once, you know, Ideally we meet 4 to 6 weeks, once a week, and then after that we kind of reevaluate and see maybe once a week is still really helpful. And that's a good frequency maybe we go to every other week because like I said before, I don't ever want to waste your time, energy and money, right? And so, and so we kind of start spacing those times out because I want you to leave with tools so that you don't need me anymore. That's the goal. And so it doesn't mean that you'll never experience anxiety again if you come for anxiety, but that you know how to manage that. And you've learned ways to to be able that it's not debilitating anymore if it was and that you're able to is not affect your life in a way that keeps you from doing the things that you want to do.

Laurie: Yeah, I love that acknowledgement of everybody going into different paces and that the goal is for an individual to not need you anymore, which is kind of a mixed bag because I'm sure you're like me where you want to talk with your clients forever and ever. But that's not the goal. And having that idea up front of it's so important not to have more therapy than you need because there can be there can be this opposite reaction to it where you start dreading it, or you might feel like it's more conversational. And when you know when somebody notices those things, that's a good time to say, you know, right. I'm sure you bring that up too, of like, it seems like we could go longer and it gives, I feel like it gives the client that positive feeling of, okay, I am moving because today I don't have anything to talk about, you know? So that's a really good indication that things are getting better.

Lauri: Right.

Laurie: Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Lauri.

Lauri: It's been great.

Laurie: Yes. Yes. We got Laurie and Lauri, so don't confuse us.

Lauri: Yeah. And I think hopefully you notice my bobblehead. I like notice that my head was like, tilted. And so I apologize to any of you as I was like, adjusting my head and then it felt like a bobblehead. So I want to throw that out there. Yes. Yeah, it looked really silly, but like I said, it makes me anxious. So I tend to like, do weird things, right? So I have my own stuff.

Laurie: There we go.

Lauri: But I'm working on it and I'm doing awesome. And so I look forward to meeting any of you that want to come.

Laurie: Yes. I just I love that. I love that, sharing those things right, is because it's true. It's true. This isn't always easy, right? So I think that's a good thing to acknowledge for everybody out there. Thanks again. And if you want to reach out to Lauri, you can go ahead to www.shoresidetherapies.com. And it's actually right here on the bottom of our screen how to connect. And then you can also email Lauri or call or text or schedule right online if you would like. And sometimes that's easier for people to schedule a free 15 minute consult. And that way you can meet and talk and see if it's a good fit. So thanks again.

Lauri: Thank you.

Laurie: All right. Take care.

Lauri: You too!