Authentic Path Counseling

We specialize in helping individuals, couples, and families navigate their way through life and relationships.

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“You can choose courage, or you can choose comfort, but you cannot do both”

-Brene Brown

About Us

Authentic Path Counseling (APC) is a small practice nestled in Fairfield, Connecticut that specializes in helping individuals, couples, and families navigate their way through life and relationships. APC recognizes that everyone has their own unique path in life that comes with successes, challenges, and obstacles. Most of us experience some difficulties in life and would benefit from additional support and skills. APC focuses on helping clients build those skills in order to create effective change and communication while moving forward in their lives. We use a practical approach that empowers each client to determine what is most helpful for them to move on from therapy with coping strategies of their own!

Authentic Path Counseling was inspired by nature, specifically the forest and woods. Nature’s trails and paths are not neatly paved, straight lines without any obstacles, and neither is life. Each individual has their own unique journey with their own set of victories and challenges. As we move through life we encounter twists and turns, obstacles in our paths, forks in the road, even a dead-end or two. Rarely is our journey direct, yet, those turns and obstacles present us with opportunities to stop and consider our options and destination.  Authentic Path Counseling seeks to provide support, encouragement, and strategies to help you navigate your own path. If you’d like to learn more about our services or schedule an appointment, please contact us.

LauraBurke

“Those who work with me walk away knowing what they feel matters and with strategies to improve their lives and relationships.”

-Laura Burke LMFT

Laura Burke, LMFT

Laura is the owner and founder of Authentic Path Counseling. She has experience working in diverse settings and with a variety of issues: anxiety, depression, relationship issues, and lifestyle challenges. As a Connecticut Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Laura is trained to view the individual, family, and couple through the relationship lens. She believes our relationships impact behaviors, thoughts, and feelings and if we change how we interact with those closest to us, we will change how we think, feel and treat ourselves.

Laura also believes in the importance of holistic treatment. Often, a problem in one area of life creates a ripple effect. She often uses Structural and Strategic models of therapy as well as Solution-Focused Treatment and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help relieve symptoms of anxiety, depression, family conflict, and improve self-esteem to help allow a person or family to achieve change and move forward.

Our Core Services

Therapy And Counseling

Chances are you’ve met someone who has benefitted from the therapy. In fact, most of us would find therapy helpful at one time or another in our lives. While most of us function well within our lives, we all experience periods of high stress, transition, and conflict which exceeds our ability to cope. Therapy is an opportunity to build upon the skills and strengths you may already possess and learn new strategies to cope. Therapy services at Authentic Path Counseling (APC) are available to individuals, couples, and families. We offer services in our office spaces located in Fairfield or Stamford and through Telehealth.

Life And Career Coaching

There are those who are fortunate to know what they want to do for a career when they are young. However, most of us question what career will satisfy us and create a sense of purpose. Even if we know what we’d like to do, it can be difficult or overwhelming to know how to take the first step. It may take years and a couple of different careers to figure it out. Perhaps you’ve finished college and are interested in graduate school or you’ve decided you’d like to change careers and are unsure of what to do next. At APC we provide a supportive environment to explore career aspirations, challenges to change and strategies to move toward your goals!

Our Core Services

Nutrition And Fitness

You may have heard the phrase “diet culture” before and for those who haven’t, “diet culture” refers to our society’s obsession with “wellness” “fitness” and our increased value on body size for a sense of self-worth. What you may not know is we are deeply steeped within “diet culture” and it affects our lives and esteem on many levels.
Diet culture looks like identifying foods as “good or bad”, labeling yourself as “good or bad” based on what you eat or how much you eat, believing you are not worthy of wearing particular clothes due to body size, or that you aren’t worthy of a meaningful relationship or partner until you “reach your goal.” These are just a few examples, I suspect you have your own examples from life as well.
At APC we believe in using all our tools and resources to reduce the impact of diet culture and improve our relationship with nutrition, fitness, and our self-esteem. Each person’s relationship with fitness, nutrition, and mental health is different and we seek to help support you in your goals of improved overall health, which starts with the mind.

Our Core Services

Perinatal Mood Care

It’s not uncommon for new parents to question “is this normal?” after childbirth. Each experience of becoming a parent is unique, even for the seasoned parent. Perinatal mood disorders can affect new parents, seasoned parents, adoptive parents, and single parents. The most commonly recognized term is “postpartum depression” which only encompasses one element of pregnancy-related mood disorders. Pregnancy is an exciting, life-changing, and challenging adventure for all involved. If you have a history of mental health challenges, you may be more susceptible to symptoms pre and post-pregnancy which may benefit from additional support.
Perinatal mood disorders are far more common than we’re led to believe, and one of the least understood and talked about mental health concerns. What we do know is that postpartum symptoms can occur at any point during the first year following the birth of a child. That experts believe 80% of women experience “baby blues” during the first 2-3 weeks after delivery. For 1 in 7 women, “baby blues” develops into a more severe form of perinatal mood disorders. Perinatal mood disorders also affect men, in fact, 14% of US men will experience postpartum symptoms. Perinatal mood care refers to more than just postpartum depression including anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bi-polar disorder, and psychosis.
**Facts from Postpartum Support International

Affordable Pricing

We currently accept Aetna, Anthem, and Cigna insurance. We strongly recommend those who would like to use insurance to contact their insurance company to obtain information regarding their benefits. Clients are responsible for paying their co-pay or payment at the time of service.

If you are choosing to pay out-of-pocket:

$150 initial intake Fee

$135/ hour session or $75/40 minutes session

$115/ hour for a Telehealth session or $55/40 minute session

$75 cancellation fee

Client choose to do this for a few reasons.

  • They don’t want the insurance company involved/aware/paying for the service
  • The service is not covered by their insurance
  • The insurance is out-of-network and then the client submits the payments themselves to their insurance company for reimbursement
**Limited sliding fee appointments available
**Packages for pre-payment of sessions also available

Ready to start this new journey?

Contact Us

To schedule an appointment:

Call us directly

(203) 403-7178

For initial inquiries only

authenticpathcounseling@outlook.com