I'm Laurie and This is My Substack

Who I am and why I'm here

My Story

My name is Laurie Chancey. I’ve been educated as a sociologist, trained as an Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner, and shaped by a deeply nontraditional upbringing. I was raised without formal education – no grades, no tests, no curriculum. Instead, I grew up with books, video games, and the freedom to follow my own inner compass. This style of childraising is known as “unschooling.” But we didn’t talk much about that, not really. What I understood is that I was growing up differently, and my only job was just to live.

Unschooling gave me freedom, but also a heavy backpack of questions: How does the world work? Am I smart? How do I know I’m okay without anyone measuring me?
I carried those questions into college without a diploma or GED. I took the ACT, got admitted, and figured I would fall back on my plan of owning a bookstore with a resident cat if I couldn’t do the college thing. Surprisingly, I thrived. In the first week, I attended Sociology 101 and knew I had found my place. Sociology captured my curiosity and promised to explain a social world that had felt so dangerously unknown. I graduated summa cum laude in sociology, earned a master’s degree, and spent over a decade teaching and advising students as a community college sociology professor.

Teaching was healing for me. I was seen, respected, and effective. But something still felt incomplete. I was anxious, depressed, avoidant, and generally unhealthy in multiple ways. In a moment of desperation, I began calling a list of therapists. After I left a dozen different voicemails, somebody actually picked up the phone. She happened to practice Internal Family Systems (IFS), which I’d never heard of before. That’s how I stumbled upon the next calling in my life.

I found the IFS model so healing that I changed careers. At first I thought I was leaving sociology behind, but I quickly found out that wasn’t the case. All of my sociology knowledge could be applied to understanding the inner societies of parts inside individuals. Later, I discovered that parts not only hold burdens from personal experience, but burdens that actually belong to society. For example, a part can be holding a burdened belief of I’m not enough. That belief is much heavier when the collective burdens of capitalism or colonialism are involved. So now I’m not just teaching about human corruption in society – I’m holding space to help people free themselves from it. I wasn’t leaving sociology behind, at all.

Today, I’m an IFS practitioner seeing clients and facilitating groups through Laurie Chancey Coaching. I am Administrative Director and Assistant Teacher at Concrescence Institute, where we specialize in training healing professionals in trauma healing modalities and psychedelic integration. I have training in applied shamanism, certification in ketamine-enhanced IFS (KIFS), and I continue to expand. As I heal more of my own system, I gain more capacity to help others heal themselves.

What This Space Is

This Substack is where all the threads come together.

It’s where I explore how inner healing connects to outer systems: how our parts carry personal pain, cultural burdens, and ancestral trauma. How capitalism shapes our protectors. How spiritual injury can echo through generations. And how healing can ripple outward into something collective, even sacred.

What You’ll Find Here

In this space, I’ll share:

• Personal essays on unschooling, identity, and trauma recovery

• Sociology + IFS explorations on systems, trauma, and power

• Reflections on spiritual healing and psychedelic integration

• Guided practices for parts work and spiritual connection

• Whatever calls to me that fits with the overarching theme

I'll post weekly, seeking a rhythm that feels sustainable and real. Much content will be free, and I’ve already started working on paid bundles and premium offerings for those wanting deeper support.

Why I’m Writing Here

I want a space to collect my reflections and share what could also be beneficial for others. I have a backlog of stories from my healing work, often peppered with messages from my parts and other beings who implore me: “Write about me! Tell my story!” With this Substack, I am saying “Yes, I will.” I have tales that want to be read, seen, and witnessed by more than just me. Some of the readers will find a resonance they didn’t expect, and then we are all a bit more connected.

I believe what I experience. I’ve tried to heal through isolation (I gave it a really solid go) and it didn’t work. Connection is what is healing me. My wounding happens in the context of others, and so does my healing. My wounds have been influenced by family patterns, cultural scripts, and systems that often feel invisible. I don’t want to speak for you, but I’m pretty confident that you have wounds like that too.

This is a space to get curious about those wounds and those influences. To tenderly bring them into the light, care for them, and set them free.

If this resonates with you, I hope you’ll stay.

Thank you for reading.

Warmly,
Laurie

For further exploration:

Laurie Chancey Coaching - my private practice website

Concrescence Institute - expert and in-depth training for consciousness medicine the inner world

IFS Institute - official home of the Internal Family Systems therapeutic modality

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