Laurence Letich, LCSW-C
Laurence Letich is a therapist, author and speaker who has spent his lifetime exploring the inner landscape of human thought and feeling — and the rocky terrain of human relationships. His work centers on helping people connect more deeply, authentically, and lovingly with their inner selves and those they care about.
He read his first book on psychotherapy — Dibs: In Search of Self, the classic work on play therapy — in 1966, at age eleven. Two years later, he independently sought therapy for himself through his high school to address the early loss of his mother and the effects of undiagnosed ADHD (a condition he wouldn’t know he had for another twenty‑seven years).
After high school, Larry immersed himself in the Human Potential Movement of the 1970s, including some of its wilder and woollier edges. Not all those experiences were positive, but from great teachers he learned the power of authentic connection — and how people can share all their feelings, not just the “good” ones, in ways that bring them closer rather than drive them apart.
In the late 1980s he discovered the mind-body self-help approach known as Focusing, and later Inner Relationship Focusing, a refinement of the process developed by Ann Weiser Cornell. In Focusing and IRF, Larry found an embodied pathway to knowing and working with his inner self — more powerful and authentic, yet gentler, than any method he had encountered before. He became a trainer and coordinator in the approach, leading and co‑leading workshops across the United States.
At forty, Larry learned he had Adult ADHD — specifically, Attention Deficit Disorder, Inattentive Type — and realized he’d lived with it all his life, as had his father and likely generations before him. That discovery transformed how he saw himself and deepened his commitment to helping other gifted adults who struggle as he once did.
Around that time, he left his career as an editor and freelance writer (and part‑time Focusing trainer) to earn his Master’s in Social Work and become a full‑time licensed clinician. Along the way, he and his wife, psychologist Dr. Helene Brenner, started a family and collaborated on I Know I’m in There Somewhere: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner Voice and Living a Life of Authenticity (Penguin USA, 2003), where Larry was the “with” author.
Following his lifelong interest in emotional connection and relationship, in 2014 Larry became certified in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy — the most effective approach for helping couples heal their relationship and restore their bond.
For the past twenty years, Larry has devoted himself to helping men, women, and couples live more fulfilling, emotionally connected lives. He also works with gifted adults who have what he calls “Hidden ADHD” — the kind that often goes unrecognized until adulthood — helping them understand and heal the emotional patterns that come with it, both individually and in their relationships.
Together, he and Helene have developed Contemporary Focusing‑Oriented Therapy — an approach that brings the embodied therapeutic power of Focusing into the therapy room. Their collaboration has culminated in When You Let the Body Lead: Embodied Healing and Change with Contemporary Focusing‑Oriented Therapy, published in June 2026. They are offering presentations, workshops and online training programs in the modality to therapists and other healing professionals.