Laurie Buehler, MFT
What would you like to do with your one wild and precious life?
Let go of what no longer matters, preserve what matters most, grow into the person you are meant to be.
I accompany people through profound human experiences rather than treat disorders. Grief, illness, divorce, caregiving, emerging adulthood, spiritual awakening, the quiet question of what comes next. In-person in Ithaca, NY. Telehealth for California, New York, Colorado, and Pennsylvania.
Three doorways, one question
Different lives. The same unspoken question.
“I’m 23 and I don’t know what I’m doing with my life.”
You left college, or your first job, or the city you grew up in. Independence was supposed to feel like freedom. It feels like vertigo. Friends look certain. You are not.
“I’m 47 and my spouse has cancer.”
A diagnosis, a divorce, an aging parent, a child leaving home. Burnout in the career you fought for. The life you built no longer fits the person you are becoming, and there is no off-ramp.
“I’ve succeeded, but something feels deeply missing.”
Aging. Loss. A serious illness, your own or someone you love. The question of how to live well when you can no longer pretend the road is endless. The hunger for something the symptom checklist will not name.
All three people are asking the same thing. Who am I now?
You don't need someone to fix you. You need a steady companion who has spent twenty years sitting with grief, illness, love, divorce, and identity change. Someone who can hold profound questions without rushing to answers.
Three ways we can work together
I'm the therapist people come to when life becomes more complicated than symptom management.
When life changes us, we often need more than coping skills. We need somewhere to make meaning of what is happening.
Therapy for Life Transitions
Individual psychotherapy for the thresholds that change who you are. Grief, divorce, illness, caregiving, leaving home, midlife disruption, the quiet question of what comes next.
Nature-Based Therapy & Groups
Walking therapy on Ithaca’s gorge trails. Outdoor grief circles. Wild Church and state-park gatherings. Climate Cafes and eco-spirituality groups. Therapy that meets you where the natural world already is.
Living with Chronic Illness & Pain
For people facing serious illness, chronic pain, anticipatory grief, or the work of caregiving. Befriending the body. Walking with mortality. Drawing on ten years of hospice experience.
Meaning-Based Groups · Forming
Small circles for the questions therapy alone can't answer.
Six groups currently forming for the year ahead. Some indoors, some outdoors, all small enough to feel known. Add your name to the interest list and I'll write when the next cohort opens.
Walking with Mortality
For people living with a serious or terminal illness, and those who love them.
Living Between Worlds
Life after divorce, retirement, diagnosis, or loss. When the old shape no longer fits.
Grief and the Wild
Outdoor grief circles in the gorges and state parks around Ithaca.
Befriending Uncertainty
A meeting place for meditation, existential psychology, and the science of not-knowing.
The Spirituality of Everyday Life
For spiritual-but-not-religious adults asking life’s deepest questions.
Becoming Who Life Is Asking You to Be
A group for people listening for what wants to emerge next.
No commitment. You'll hear from me when a group you noted is ready to begin.
Healing looks different for everyone.
We start where you are
A free 15-minute consultation to see if we're a good fit. No pressure, no jargon.
We listen to your whole self
Sessions integrate your body, mind, and spirit. Through simple mindfulness, body-oriented techniques, and heart-based honesty, we find what's stuck.
You find your way forward
Together, we develop your capacity to navigate uncertainty with clarity and compassion.
What a session feels like
A session with me is warm, direct, and integrative. We don't just talk about your feelings — we notice where they live in your body. We don't just analyze your thoughts — we explore the wisdom underneath them.
Modalities I draw from
I know what it means to create a new reality after loss.
I know what it means to create a new reality after loss, to reinvent myself. When I was thirteen, my father died. Years later, I was debilitated by severe chronic pain for over two years. I was fully healed through body-mind-spirit interventions — the same approaches I now bring to my clients.
Over two decades, I've walked alongside people navigating their darkest moments. Ten years as a hospice grief counselor. Four years supervising the clinical intern program at Hospice by the Bay. Children in schools, adults in crisis, elders at the end of life.
In 2023, my family and I left the San Francisco Bay Area for Ithaca, New York — a move driven by our values around climate, community, and the kind of life we want our son to grow up in.
Everything you're wondering.
It means I accompany people through profound human experiences rather than treat disorders. Most of my clients are not in crisis. They are at a threshold: a diagnosis, a divorce, a child leaving, a parent dying, a quarter-life identity shift, a serious illness, a spiritual awakening. The clinical question they are asking is the same one a poet would ask. Who am I now? My job is to be steady company while you find out.
Yes. In fact, this work is built for that. You do not have to be falling apart to need a thoughtful companion. If you are at a major life transition and notice that "just coping" is no longer enough, that is exactly the kind of work I do.
Yes. I offer walking therapy on the gorge trails and state parks around Ithaca, as well as outdoor grief circles, Wild Church gatherings, and Climate Cafes. See the Nature-Based Therapy page for details.
We start with a free 15-minute phone consultation to see if we're a good fit. If we decide to work together, the first full session is about getting to know your story: what brought you here, what you're carrying, and what you hope to find. There's no pressure to go deep right away. We move at your pace.
I don't accept insurance directly, but I provide monthly statements (superbills) that you can submit to your insurance company for potential reimbursement. Many PPO plans offer out-of-network benefits. I also offer a sliding scale for those who need it. Therapy should be accessible.
Individual session fees are available upon request during our initial consultation. I offer a sliding scale to ensure therapy is accessible. The Befriending the Body chronic pain group is $500 total ($150 intake + $350 for the 7-week series).
Both are deeply effective. In-person sessions happen at my Ithaca, NY office. Telehealth sessions use a secure video platform and are available if you live in California, New York, Colorado, or Pennsylvania. Many clients find telehealth more comfortable: you're in your own space, which can actually make it easier to be vulnerable.
It varies widely. Some clients come for a few months during a specific transition. Others work with me for a year or longer as they navigate deeper patterns. The chronic pain group is a structured 7-week commitment. There's no minimum or maximum. We check in regularly about what's working.
Yes. I specialize in working with young adults, college-aged and in their 20s, who are navigating the transition into independence. Whether you're a student at Cornell, Ithaca College, or settling in the area from another state, I can help you navigate academic, social, and relational challenges with groundedness and clarity.
If you're asking this question, something is stirring. That's usually enough. Therapy isn't about being "broken enough" to need help. It's about wanting to understand yourself more deeply and having a skilled companion on the journey. The free consultation is a no-pressure way to explore whether this feels right.
Ready to Begin?
Reaching out is the first step.
Book a free 15-minute consultation. No commitment, no pressure, just a conversation to see if we're a good fit.
In-Person
950 Danby Road, Suite 245, Ithaca, NY 14850
Telehealth
Available for CA, NY, CO, and PA residents
Phone
(415) 944-8677
Hours
Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern