Services
Therapy Appointments
Marriage Workshops
Speaking Engagements
Meet the Team
Our team of skilled family therapists is here to help you navigate life’s challenges with care, understanding, and proven expertise. Together, we’ll work toward stronger relationships, healthier communication, and lasting change.
Dr. Lori Schade
founder and owner of Compassionate
Connections Counseling
LMFT, AAMFT approved supervisor, EFCT, EFIT and EFFT certified therapist and supervisor, AASECT certified sex therapist, certified trauma professional.
I'm Dr. Lori Schade, LMFT. I wanted to become a marriage and family therapist because I grew up in a large family and loved it. I I have been practicing therapy on and off since 1989, alternating my work with the work of raising my own large family of 7 children, created with my husband of almost four decades. Though family life can be crazy, I believe in the protective elements of strong families. Marriages and families potentially influence individuals in powerful ways. Some of our strongest emotions are experienced in our family relationships. Helping people in the context of these relationships is my favorite kind of therapy.
I see individuals, couples and families, with special clinical and research emphases in couples’ therapy, infidelity, attachment injuries, sex therapy, non-suicidal self-injury, and trauma. I am certified in all three emotionally-focused models, EFIT, EFCT and EFFT. I am also trained in and employ the Gottman method for couples, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Self-compassion, Lifespan Integration (LI), Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Sand tray therapy, and various play therapies, including Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT), and Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), narrative therapies, solution-focused therapies, experiential and art therapies, and additional attachment-based and trauma-informed therapies.
In addition to practicing therapy, I have been an adjunct faculty member for the Marriage and Family Therapy Department at Brigham Young University, training graduate students in clinical techniques. I was also adjunct faculty for the Behavioral Sciences Department at Utah Valley University, teaching undergraduate courses in therapy foundations and models, and in human sexuality. I am the author of several research particles and a chapter about supervision in academic publications, and have published Couples Therapy Workbook for Healing: Emotionally Focused Therapy Techniques as a practical trade book for couples.
Currently, I serve as a board member of Dahlia’s Hope, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing aftercare services for victims of sex-trafficking. In my spare time, I love to try new things, and especially love reading, running (when I’m not injured), knitting, planning crafts to do with my grandchildren and games to play with my married children and their families. My accumulated wisdom tells me that one of life’s best kept secrets is the joy of grandchildren.
