Laura Raffa

I came to this work the way many therapists do — through my own longing to understand what happens between people. How we connect, how we disconnect, and how we might find our way back to each other. What I didn't expect was how central the body would become to that understanding.

My training as a dance/movement therapist taught me that the body holds stories our minds haven't yet found words for. Movement became my first language of therapy — not choreography, but the subtle, intuitive gestures that arise when we turn our attention inward. From there, I discovered that group work amplifies this process in profound ways. When we move and speak and sit with others in a circle of shared intention, something shifts that cannot shift alone.

Over the past nearly 20years, I have worked across a range of settings — from community mental health to hospital systems to private practice. For many years, I served in a leadership role within New York City's correctional health system, where I witnessed the extraordinary resilience of people navigating some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable. That work deepened my commitment to accessible, group-based care that honors the whole person.

Today, my practice centers on group therapy for adults, clinical supervision for clinicians and graduate students, and Authentic Movement circles in my Maryland community. Each of these spaces is guided by the same belief: that healing is relational, that the body is wise, and that creative expression opens doors that talk alone cannot.

I hold a deep respect for the courage it takes to show up — whether in a therapy group, a supervision circle, or a movement practice. My role is to hold the space with enough structure to feel safe and enough openness to allow genuine discovery.