Laura Brown-Lavoie
About the Teacher
Why study with them?
Laura Brown-Lavoie, MDiv., is a poet, farmer, and spiritual caregiver. Her client work centers on supporting ancestral lineage healing as part of the Ancestral Medicine Network, and in one-on-one ministry of deep listening, contemplative practice, and midwifery of her clients’ creative work. A graduate from Union Theological Seminary in New York, Laura wrote her master's thesis about plants, in particular pomegranates, as divine messengers. During her time in New York, she served as the Program Coordinator for the Mindfulness, Meditation, Buddhism program at All Souls NYC, a UU congregation in Manhattan, and was the chair of Union's Pagan Caucus.
Laura was raised Unitarian Universalist, and encountered the teachings of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh as a teenager, which was the beginning of decades of meditation, asana, and mindfulness practice, mainly guided by teachers in the Insight, Plum Village, Dzogchen, and Trika Shaivite traditions. More recently, the rhythms of Muslim worship have become an important part of Laura's spiritual life, alongside her partner and his family. During seminary, Laura was invited into the pulpit at All Souls, and now serves as a guest preacher at UU congregations around the Northeast. She is currently an aspirant to ministry with the Unitarian Universalist Association. Laura is in a lifelong apprenticeship to the spirit medicine of plants, alongside her teacher Deb Soule, and celebrates the wheel of the year in the ancient rhythm of her ancestors and of planet Earth. She is an avid hiker and outdoorsperson.
Laura’s first book of poetry, Club Desire, was published in 2022 on Binch Press in Providence, Rhode Island. She served for years on the volunteer staff of the Providence Poetry Slam, and twice represented Providence as a finalist at national slam competitions. She is at work on a lyric novel, Our Lady Untier of Knots.
You can learn more about her work on her website, elasticportal.space.
Laura was raised Unitarian Universalist, and encountered the teachings of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh as a teenager, which was the beginning of decades of meditation, asana, and mindfulness practice, mainly guided by teachers in the Insight, Plum Village, Dzogchen, and Trika Shaivite traditions. More recently, the rhythms of Muslim worship have become an important part of Laura's spiritual life, alongside her partner and his family. During seminary, Laura was invited into the pulpit at All Souls, and now serves as a guest preacher at UU congregations around the Northeast. She is currently an aspirant to ministry with the Unitarian Universalist Association. Laura is in a lifelong apprenticeship to the spirit medicine of plants, alongside her teacher Deb Soule, and celebrates the wheel of the year in the ancient rhythm of her ancestors and of planet Earth. She is an avid hiker and outdoorsperson.
Laura’s first book of poetry, Club Desire, was published in 2022 on Binch Press in Providence, Rhode Island. She served for years on the volunteer staff of the Providence Poetry Slam, and twice represented Providence as a finalist at national slam competitions. She is at work on a lyric novel, Our Lady Untier of Knots.
You can learn more about her work on her website, elasticportal.space.
