Laurie A. Couture, M.Ed, LMHC

Laurie A. Couture is a tenacious advocate for the human rights of young people. She currently works as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor for children, adolescents and young adults. As a writer, she is very politically involved in humanitarian pursuits, especially concerning the plight of children in American society. She sits on the Board of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (www.nospank.net), a children's human rights organization. Ms. Couture has had previous experience working as a social worker with youth in the foster care system. Ms. Couture has several years of professional experience working with children and adolescents (ages 2-22) with trauma histories who present with severe behavioral and psychological disorders. She has extensively researched the psychological and behavioral effects of child trauma and has worked as an advocate and mentor of youth since 1992.

Ms. Couture's concentrations and specialties include raising public awareness to positive, non-violent child discipline, political advocacy to end all forms of corporal punishment of children, raising public awareness of the sexual assault of males and sexual perpetration of children by females, raising public awareness to overlooked forms of child maltreatment, and raising public awareness to the detrimental and anti-democratic aspects of traditional public schooling.

Ms. Couture is an avid writer, fine artist and photographer who works with youth in a positive, creative, respectful manner. She has former experience as a pre-school teacher and mentor. She has written extensively, facilitated parent trainings and spoken publicly on children's human right's issues. She has also given interviews on radio shows and local TV . Her raw advocacy is based upon the principle that children deserve the same basic human rights to protection, respect and dignity as all people. Her strong belief is that in order to address social problems, especially violent crime and mental illness, we must understand and treat the root causes- these causes almost always involve dysfunctional family and school experiences or other childhood trauma that continues to cycle if left unadressed. Ms. Couture resides in the New England region of the United States.

Current Projects: Ms. Couture is currently building her private practice, offering outreach counseling services to youth and families, as well as consulting, trainings and workshops to parents and institutions that work with children. She is working on two major book projects dealing with children's human rights issues. She is also working on a comic series entitled, "The Hypocrisy Chronicles" (which will appear on ChildAdvocate.org and in one of her books). Long-term projects include working on a film project with The Odysseus Group about the detriments of public schooling.