About Lara

Since 2017, I have been asking how we can make things suck less when it comes to supporting families like ours (queer, trans, polyamorous, fat, disabled and more). After years as a social worker in child, family, and medical settings, I thought I was ahead of the game when it came to building my own family. Fast forward to me, frantically googling known donor agreements, fertility doctors, and second parent adoption, and hitting what felt like one roadblock after another. I found myself wishing there was a roadmap that took into account all of the supports we needed: medical, legal, financial, and social. 

As I was tackling my own questions of “How do you do this medically, legally, emotionally?”, my friends with young children were facing their own challenges. They were navigating second parent adoption, looking for family therapists, navigating new diagnoses and divorces, and struggling to find affordable, queer and trans competent providers to help. To help them, I made countless phone calls and interviewed therapists, medical providers, attorneys, as well as foster care and adoption workers. I gained a complex understanding of these systems, and now I share what I’ve learned to help make this journey easier for families that traditional systems aren’t built for: queer, trans, polyamorous, fat, disabled, and more. 

What started as helping friends and pro bono work with local queer legal groups doing second parent adoptions has grown into Courageous Constellations. From updating adoption forms to be inclusive; working on third (and more) parent adoptions; training social workers, attorneys and, doctors; and developing referrals to affirming professionals, I’ve been building the resources to support families. Now I’m growing to offer even more individualized support to families of all forms.

My mission is to help families grow together. I seek to offer compassionate, practical support for any change in your family constellation. Whether you’re considering becoming a parent, seeking legal protections for your family, or just feeling overwhelmed about navigating changes to your unique family, I’m here for you. My goal is to provide actionable resources that will make your life better. This can include information about all of your options, referrals to affirming providers, community resources, books to read, and even helping break down peer-reviewed research.   

I am a long time Puget Sound resident. I graduated from the University of Washington in 2010 with my Masters of Social Work, and I am a licensed independent clinical social worker (credential #LW60629606) and a Washington State approved supervisor for mental health professionals. In addition to my work with LGBTQIA+ families, I have worked for over a decade providing clinical care and program management in community health, including pediatric gender-affirming care, adolescent medicine, chronic illness case management, HIV case management, and student health programs. I also offer clinical supervision, consultation, and training to other professionals looking to learn to better support unique families. In addition to my professional experience, my work is informed by my experience as a queer, agender, fat femme parent, in community with other diverse parents and families. 

To learn more about the ways we can work together, check out my Services page.