Lara Collis, LPC is excited about joining Greatland Clinical Associates. She is looking to build a full-time practice and is training to become a Certified Integrative Mental Health Provider.

Lara was born in Scotland and moved to the United States as an infant.  She has lived in California, Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington State, and Alaska.  As an adolescent, Lara’s family traveled around the world for 11 months. This is where she learned to appreciate the sights and sounds, spiritual paths, and shared humanity of our global community.  Lara appreciates world travel, amateur photography, reading, music, nature, and the performing arts.  One interesting fact about Lara is that she learned to “eat fire” during a Mardi Gras celebration when she was in her 20’s.

Lara designed her Bachelor’s Degree in Cross-Cultural Studies from Fairhaven College, Western Washington University. She holds a Master’s Degree in Systems Counseling from the Leadership Institute of Seattle (LIOS), Bastyr University.  She first became licensed in Washington prior to moving to Alaska where she has enjoyed living and working in Bristol Bay and most recently the North Slope.  She has over 35 years of professional experience and has been a Licensed Professional Counselor in Alaska since 2012.  During her time in Dillingham, one of her roles was coordinating the Psychiatric Clinic at the Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation where she first met our colleagues Aryeh and Lisa, prior to their employment with GCA.

Lara has over 15 years in the counseling and wellness professions including as a mental health clinician, on-call clinician, group facilitator, program manager, clinical supervisor, community educator, and wellness coordinator.

Her area of expertise and interests includes anxiety and depression, stress management, addictions, chronic mental illness, cross-cultural counseling including supporting Alaska Natives and Native Americans, eating misuse, supplementing employee assistance programs, grief and loss, isolation and loneliness, life transitions, posttraumatic stress, spirituality, trauma and abuse, and women’s issues.  She is also interested in supporting healthcare providers and caregivers to maintain job satisfaction to prevent or reduce burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious traumatization.

Lara uses Cognitive Behavioral, Motivational Interviewing, and Solutions Focused therapies while integrating multicultural wellness, positive psychology, neuroscience, resilience, somatic therapy, systems theory, and trauma-informed principles in her practice.  She believes in treating everyone with respect and will tailor recommendations and share resources to meet her clients’ unique and diverse needs to provide hope and relief.