Lauren Taylor
Associate Marriage and Family Therapist & Associate Professional Clinical Counselor
Pasadena Therapist for Trauma & Perinatal Mental Health
In-person therapy in Pasadena and Virtual therapy in California
About Lauren, AMFT, APCC
Hello, I’m Lauren Taylor, an AMFT/APCC, mom to two young boys, and part of a Franco-American family.
I’m bilingual in French and English, and outside of therapy I’m an early childhood educator, gardener, reader, and someone who loves being outside with my family!
Becoming a mother changed my life in ways I could never have anticipated. During that transition, I struggled with perinatal anxiety and OCD, and shortly after the birth of my first child, my own mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. My family and I moved back home to help care for her, and eventually losing her brought grief, identity, time, and questions of purpose into very sharp focus. It was a period that changed how I understood myself and what I wanted my life to mean. Through my own therapy, motherhood, and grief, becoming a therapist began to feel like stepping into work I was always meant to pursue, work that felt meaningful, purposeful, and deeply aligned with who I had become.
Before becoming a therapist, I spent 15 years working professionally as an actor. Acting taught me to be curious about people—their emotions, vulnerabilities, relationships, bodies, and the stories they carry about themselves. That part of my life still shapes who I am as a therapist today and gives me a particular connection to creatives and others who are navigating vulnerability, sensitivity, neurodivergence, identity, and change.
“You can love your life and still recognize that something needs to change.”
Clinical Focus
Many of the people I work with come to therapy at a point when something in their life is shifting. You may be becoming a mother, facing infertility or pregnancy loss, grieving someone you love, feeling stretched thin by parenthood or a demanding career, or questioning a relationship or the life you worked hard to build. Sometimes the transition is clear; other times, it is simply the feeling that something no longer fits.
I am particularly passionate about supporting women and families through pregnancy, postpartum, and motherhood. This season can hold enormous love alongside exhaustion, anxiety, grief, guilt, identity shifts, intrusive thoughts, relationship changes, and pressure to do everything “right.” It can also stir up our own experiences of being cared for and how comfortable we feel asking for help or expressing our needs. In therapy, there is room to name all of it. You can love your children deeply and still struggle with how your life feels right now. Both can be true.
I also work with people whose minds and bodies seem to be constantly on alert. Anxiety, OCD, perfectionism, overachieving, rumination, intrusive thoughts, people-pleasing, self-criticism, or a constant need to anticipate what could go wrong can become exhausting. Sometimes these patterns developed as ways of staying safe, connected, accepted, or in control. Instead of beginning from How do we get rid of this part of me?, I am interested in asking: What is this trying to do for you? What is it afraid would happen if it stopped? And what might you need instead?
I take people as they come. You may know exactly what you want to explore or have no idea where to begin. We can start there.
How I Can Support You
What therapy with me looks like
I draw from IFS-informed parts work, attachment-based and relational therapy, and somatic practices, while also using evidence-based approaches, including Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for OCD. I also incorporate Emotion-Focused Therapy principles and EMDR-informed preparation and resourcing while completing my EMDR training.
My style is warm, conversational, curious, and active. I want therapy to feel collaborative, grounded, and human! You will see me laughing, smiling, and actively listening. You get to be you, warts and all—and I hope you leave feeling heard, seen, and a bit more at peace.
My Training & Experience
Ongoing weekly consultation in TRM, EMDR, IFS and Perinatal Mental Health with Cyla Fisk, LMFT, PMH-C
EMDR Therapy Training, Parts 1 & 2 — StartAgain Associates
Community Resiliency Model — Trauma Resource Institute
IFS-Informed Parts Work — Tiffany O’Hara, LCSW
Emotion-Focused Therapy — Stephanie Saari, LMFT
OCD & Exposure and Response Prevention — Farah Zerehi, LMFT, OCD Specialist
Perinatal Mental Health 101 — Department of Mental Health in partnership with UCLA Prevention Center of Excellence
Education & Graduate Research
Master of Science in Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy / Professional Clinical Counseling
Western Institute for Social Research, 2026
Graduate focus in perinatal mental health, grief, and personality disorders
Master’s Thesis: Reframing Borderline Personality Disorder: A Qualitative Study of Trauma, Attachment, and Clinician Meaning-Making
My research explored clinicians’ perspectives on Borderline Personality Disorder through a trauma-informed and attachment-based lens.
Additional Professional Experience
Before becoming a therapist, I spent approximately 15 years working with children and families in preschool, public-school, tutoring, teaching, and caregiving settings. I also taught English in France and worked as a French tutor with adolescents and young adults.
I also spent 15 years working professionally as an actor. During my acting training at Shakespeare & Company, I had the opportunity to participate in training with psychologist and trauma researcher Bessel van der Kolk that explored the relationship between performance, movement, voice, body awareness, and emotional experience. That experience, along with my broader training as an actor, continues to inform my appreciation for creativity, vulnerability, embodiment, and the connection between our emotional and physical experiences.
