Laurel Young
Early Years
I was born and raised in Northern California where I experienced being the only child from divorced parents in my elementary class offering me the opportunity to navigate feelings of abandonment, separation, and segregation. Along with this, I silently suffered the school’s curriculum and remained an undiagnosed learning disabled student until 18 years old.
My inability to read until the end of third grade, extreme difficulty in math as well as memorizing information (like spelling words) felt like being stuck in a traffic jam. I learned to create a myriad of coping skills to avoid emotionally painful times. One of my all-time favorites was finding a cat on the way to school to rub in my face, which automatically manifested an allergy/asthma attack that would send me back home for the day where I could be by myself in my own safe world.
Discovery
I began to discover that my SQ (social IQ) and EQ (emotional IQ) were my salvation and my natural-born gifts. I was fortunate enough to encounter help in demystifying and re-framing my learning model at age 21, but the intellectual IQ scholar was not to be my destiny. I did, however, always seem to know how to interact with others and soon found my passion in being the “helper” and the “peacemaker”. I was a high school cheerleader and became the “cheerleader of support” for people’s fears and problems. At graduation, I was voted the class psychologist by my high school classmates. My greatest passion throughout this time starting at age 14 was working almost full time during summers and holidays at my father’s Oral Surgery office. It was there where I thrived, received recognition and felt group inclusion without fear for my uncanny ability to communicate, calm and neutralize the fears and anxieties that accompany surgery patients. When I wasn’t there, I was at the horse barn with my best friend, my horse.
Working for Others
After graduation from Dental Hygiene school, I worked in several different work settings. The most impactful job was in the first government pilot welfare Medical/Dental Clinic in America. Due to the population and the neighborhood, security guards escorted me to and from the building and my car in and out of the parking lot. Although I had worked with this population group before, it was there that I truly witnessed and became aware of the differences and separation that exist among the American people. I remember wondering how people could be so naive as to think we should be able to get along with other countries when families and communities can’t even get along among themselves in their own neighborhoods.
In my 40+ years as a Dental Hygienist, I was the first independent contractor Hygienist in Oregon to challenge the government and win approval with the IRS and the Oregon Board of Dentistry for the right to set up private business under the supervision of a Dentist. This was to be my first entrepreneurship experience in the business world.
Working for Self
When I wanted to create a new business where I would be my own boss without supervision over my destiny, I started Allcities Property Management in 2002. Starting with only two properties that grew to hundreds by 2014, it was evident that mediation training would be a grand idea. After all, it seemed that the majority of my day was spent putting out emotional fires and mediating differences between roommates, neighbors, personal customs and what defined acceptable behavior among tenants, owners, community members and employees. Navigating the “new business owner learning curve”, long days being on call 24/7, and the multitude of usual and customary business owner responsibilities was both challenging and humbling.
Life’s Work
I sold the business and continue my education and service in emotional-sensory resolution, mediation, restorative justice and conflict resolution. I integrated this system into my own life with astonishing results of personal peace and freedom. I now volunteer in the court system mediating small claims and landlord/tenant judge mandated appearances as well as serving in several juvenile detention education and court-mandated programs. This has been an invaluable opportunity to learn, share my skills, and help people help themselves to find more peace in their life.
I have researched, practiced, developed and collected skills and techniques over the years to create a unique system of communicative and transformational mediation. When we include “Emotional Resolution” with mediation, we create a complete package for permanent success. I have a tried and true toolbox of experiences and coping skills gathered through my life experiences as a child, teen, young adult, wife, mother, grandmother, employee and employer.
These opportunities have allowed me to learn, understand and assist others to resolve past pain, address current suffering and mediate present conflicts. Sharing and teaching these skills with individuals allows them to move forward into a balanced agreement of personal peace.
It is my passion, my play and my life mission to integrate universal human values into resolving conflict and the emotions surrounding it. The Mediation Mentor has the components to achieve this goal.
I have successfully conducted youth mentoring circles and worked with individuals, businesses, groups, families, teens, and the judicial system, resulting in mutually respectful interactions for all involved. And yes, I have found it necessary to mediate the backyard critters as well! I am a member of the Oregon Mediation Association, a Nationally Certified Professional Mediator (NCPM), a mentor, a certified Emotional and Somatic Regulation Professional” and serve on several non-profit boards and volunteer organizations.
It is here where I have found my home, my peace, my joy and my fun! I hope you will join me to discover your authentic world of joy that does exist and is attainable for all.
To find out more, contact The Mediation Mentor ยป