Lauren Hurd, MA, LMHC

Hi, I'm Lauren! I specialize in working with millennials and young adults who find themselves caught in cycles of anxiety, overthinking, self-doubt, people-pleasing, or losing themselves in their relationships with others. Often, the people I work with are already pretty self-aware. Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand yourself, recognize the patterns that keep showing up, and even have a pretty good idea of where some of them come from. But somehow, you still find yourself getting pulled back into the same cycles. That can be one of the most frustrating parts—knowing why you do something and knowing how to actually change it are two very different things. And maybe the problem isn’t that you haven’t tried hard enough. Maybe you’ve just never had the right tools. I’m Lauren Hurd, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in St. Petersburg, Florida, with over a decade of experience helping people better understand themselves, break unhealthy patterns, and create meaningful change. I believe a lot of the patterns we struggle with as adults start to make more sense when we get curious about where they came from. Maybe keeping the peace once felt safer than speaking up. Maybe being the reliable one meant learning to put your own needs aside. Or maybe paying close attention to everyone else’s emotions left very little room to figure out your own. Those strategies may have worked exactly as they were supposed to at one point. The problem is that the tools that helped us get through one chapter of life don’t always work for the one we’re trying to build now. And that’s where therapy can help. My approach is warm, practical, and collaborative. We’ll make sense of the patterns that keep showing up and understand why they’ve been so hard to change—but we won’t stop at insight. Therapy is also about figuring out what to do differently. That might mean learning how to trust yourself instead of immediately second-guessing your decisions. Setting a boundary without spending the next three days feeling guilty about it. Communicating what you need instead of hoping someone figures it out. Or learning how to stay connected to yourself even when someone else is disappointed, upset, or doesn’t understand. The goal isn’t to become a different person or suddenly have everything figured out. It’s to build healthier tools for navigating your emotions, decisions, and relationships—especially in the moments that used to pull you right back into old patterns. Because with the right tools and support, the patterns that shaped your past don’t have to keep shaping your future. I offer in-person therapy in St. Petersburg and virtual therapy throughout Florida. If something here resonates, a free 15-minute phone consultation can be a simple place to start.