Laurie Markham

I meet with people of all ages in my private practice but my experience working with young people dates back to being a teacher for 10 years. Since then, I’ve worked as a marriage and family therapist in a variety of settings, including public mental health and integrative medicine. I joined the writing project at a time when she was seeing children who were at risk of removal from their homes due to violent behavior. This was a ripe context for trying out new practices–everything else had failed! Families were not only affected by social injustices such as racism, poverty, and police violence, but also disempowered by a system that failed to recognize the broader historical context of their suffering. There was a need for an innovative and deconstructive approach to addressing their concerns.