Laura is a counselor in Charlotte, NC who practices individual, couple, and family counseling for teens seventeen and up and adults. She specializes in couple therapy, infidelity, depression, anxiety disorders, adjustment reactions, midlife issues, grief, life transitions, shame, trauma and chronic illness. Laura has a special interest in and training for working on all levels; mind/body/spirit/energy to promote emotional wellness in her counseling.
She began her counseling private practice in 1991 at Charlotte Psychiatric Associates after spending three years at Charter Pine Hospital providing family therapy for adolescents and their families. Laura was a founding member of Arboretum Behavioral Health Associates in 2000 and later joined Cameron Valley Associates in 2017. She recently moved her practice to Dillon Natural Health in April 2020.
Laura earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Social Work Master’s Degree at the University of South Carolina in 1985. Over the years, Laura has been trained in multiple counseling modalities. She uses traditional counseling along with complementary techniques to enhance mental, physical and spiritual wellness. In addition to ongoing continuing education in psychotherapy, she attended classes in Spiritual Direction at the Haden Institute, with an Episcopal priest and became an Ordained Minister in the Alliance of Divine Love. Laura completed three levels of Reiki attunement, and additionally, she took classes in Incan Peruvian energy work from Shaman who spent time in the western NC mountains. Laura was mentored in clearing blockages and balancing chakras by a Shaman trained by the Four Winds School and the Serena School. She is certified in Emotion Code. Laura practices counseling in Charlotte, NC with her husband, Craig Bass, who is the CEO of Alexander Youth Network, and they have two grown sons.
She is on several insurance panels including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Anthem BCBS, Aetna, Magellan, Beacon Health, CBHA, and Medicare. Please feel free to contact her at 704.706.3264 if you have any questions.
My approach to psychotherapy is best described as holistic, humanistic and integrative and it has emerged from a synergistic process between my studies and my life experiences. At the age of 10 and the youngest of three children, my parents divorced. Several of my family members were in helping professions. My father had his MSW degree and my grandmother had a degree in Guidance and Counseling. By high school, I already knew I wanted to help people and therefore, I studied and received a degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina. After graduation, I was lucky enough to work at Alexander Children’s Center as a cottage counselor living in with emotionally disturbed children. I met my future husband there and we went to Social Work graduate school together at the University of South Carolina where I graduated in 1985.
I returned to Charlotte where we had two sons. I worked in substance abuse prior to working as a family therapist on the adolescent unit at Charter Pines for three years. There I received the Ann Brown Award for my significant contribution to mental health. In 1991, I began my private practice at Charlotte Psychiatric Associates and my repertoire there expanded to include couples therapy which is rewarding to me since I am a child of divorce. By 1998, I branched out to my own individual practice only to develop chronic fatigue syndrome. Four years after being advised it would eventually go away, I began my journey into alternative and complementary health. This expanded my knowledge base into the mind/body/spirit connection and I began learning how emotional issues can affect the physical health of the individual. This led me to the Haden Institute where I worked on my certification in Spiritual Direction in early 2011.
