Dr. Lauren Barnes, LMFT

Dr. Lauren Barnes, LMFT Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Utah. Email for appointment. This page is not therapy This is Facebook, not therapy.

No social media posts should be considered professional advice. The information contained in posts is general information for educational purposes. Sometimes sarcasm and humor are also involved. Dr. Lauren Barnes completed her Ph.D. at Brigham Young University in Marriage & Family Therapy. Prior to her appointment as faculty at BYU in 2013, Dr. Barnes worked at Center for Change as a full-time the

rapist for girls and women with eating disorders. Dr. Barnes is currently the Director of Clinical Training for BYU’s Marriage & Family Therapy graduate program. She loves teaching, training graduate students, and working with clients. Dr. Barnes has researched and presented on family implicit rules in eating disordered and non-eating disordered families as well as other family system dynamics related to economic distress, division of labor, parenting involvement, and marital relationships. Lauren is an in-network provider with DMBA and EMI insurance. She also accepts bishop pay and private pay. Cost is $140per 45-50 minute session.

09/07/2026
09/07/2026
09/07/2026

Are you a part of the ‘clean plate club’?⁠
⁠
I’ve had SOOOO many adults tell me they feel bad leaving any food on their plate.⁠
⁠
It might be because they were always forced to finish their meal, they were made to feel bad about food waste and ‘starving children’ somewhere in the world, or they had to clean their plate to get dessert.⁠
⁠
These are the same messages we often tend to pass down to our children because we want them to…⁠
👉 Be healthy⁠
👉 Eat a variety of foods⁠
👉 Not waste food⁠
👉 Get enough to eat…⁠
⁠
But at the end of the day we’re teaching them to override their body cues and eat according to some external rule or situation.⁠
⁠
If we want them to be able to stop eating when they’ve had enough, we have to trust them to eat the amount they need now, and not coerce, bribe, or force them to eat more now.⁠
⁠
This is why we’re feeding for the future, because the way we parent with food will lay the foundation for their relationship with food for a lifetime.⁠
⁠
If you want to make sure you’re on the right track, grab my free guide: 5 Keys to Raise an Intuitive Eater. Comment here or DM me the word: KEYS!

09/07/2026
It had been 13 years since my last faculty photo.As the appointment approached, I noticed all the familiar thoughts show...
08/31/2026

It had been 13 years since my last faculty photo.
As the appointment approached, I noticed all the familiar thoughts showing up.

What color should I wear? What neckline works best with a cropped image? Should I wear more makeup than usual?

And then there were the body thoughts.

I noticed myself comparing this photo to one taken over a decade ago, before I had even seen the new one.

I noticed the urge to critique. To evaluate. To decide whether this version of me measured up to the one from years before.

It’s easy to feel pressure when a photo feels permanent.

So what do you do when you’re dreading the photo?

Notice what’s coming up.

Acknowledge it.
And show up anyway.

The goal isn’t to eliminate every insecure thought before stepping in front of the camera.

The goal is to recognize those thoughts without letting them make the decisions.

My body has changed over the years. Most bodies do. Most bodies will.

It has carried me through work, motherhood, stress, joy, challenges, healing, and growth.

This body allows me to dance at Zumba, strength train, travel, laugh, teach, and learn.

This body allows me to listen to clients, connect with students, hug the people I love, and experience the world around me.

This body has adapted through every season of life.

And lately, I’ve felt even more grateful for that.

The older I get, the more I realize how much energy we spend worrying about how we appear, and how little that has to do with what truly matters.

What matters most becomes clearer with time. The relationships we build. The people we love. The impact we have. The moments we get to experience.

We live in a culture that teaches us to make assumptions about people based on body size, appearance, age, or weight.

I offer a different invitation…
Look beyond the body.
See the person.
See the story.
See the joy, the connection, the challenges, the resilience.
See the humanity.

And maybe, just maybe,
extend that same kindness to yourself. 🤍

08/30/2026

In all my work with clients, my favorite moment is the moment after a long, hard road⁠—a road filled with upheaval, chaos, grief, letting go, rebuilding—

when, suddenly, they look around at their life and realize they've become filled with color again.

Their laughter is back online.
Their long-forgotten goofiness has bubbled up.
Their creativity has emerged like a sunflower through the concrete.
Their heart⁠—the full depth of their emotional range⁠—has woken up.

Why? says it beautifully — because their nervous system feels safe again.

Why? Because they've shown themselves that they have their own back; that they won't abandon themselves anymore.

Why? Because they've moved through the trauma, the grief, the betrayal, the shock ⁠— and it was hard, possibly the hardest thing they've ever done, but they survived it, and now they're here. Living. Choosing.

Life transitions can be destabilizing.
When you're in the thick of them, it can feel like you've lost all of your color⁠, forever.

But when you create a new chapter with enough safety, enough support, and enough beauty within it, it all comes rushing back.

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Provo, UT
84604

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