Meet Lauren Minear | Musician, Psychotherapist, & Mom

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lauren Minear and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I have taken several unconventional paths in life, but I consider myself to be pretty risk-averse. When I was fifteen, I got up on stage alone in downtown Nashville to perform my original songs. When I was twenty-two, I quit a stable, well-paying finance job in New York City with a loose plan to go to yoga and graduate school. In 2020, I pivoted from my successful private psychotherapy and yoga therapy practice to being a full-time songwriter and recording artist. All of those decisions required vulnerability, but very little risk.

Following your passions, with the knowledge that you have options and support behind you, is not a risk. I would argue that the greater risk is in not listening to your inner voice in moments of clarity. Of course, this assumes that following your passions does not endanger your physical or emotional safety, which isn’t true for everyone. I consider it a gift that this has been true for me.

I had my second child two weeks before COVID in 2020. I was on maternity leave in the middle of a move when the pandemic hit, and I chose to stay home with my kids rather than trying to build a new practice and secure safe childcare. In some ways, it was an enormous privilege to be home with my children and to know that they were safe. In others, it was extremely hard. Like millions of parents during the pandemic, my mental health and relationships took a hit. I felt a strong, deep, clear pull to write about it.

When the world started to open up again and I was able to get some time alone, I took a music production class online and started making demos of my songs. I challenged myself to write fifty songs in 2021, out of which I have recorded eleven for my upcoming album, Invisible Woman. My first single about motherhood, “Soul Tied”, is currently available on all streaming platforms.

I believe that many of the good things in my life have come from challenging myself to face vulnerability. I hope that my children will see me following my dreams and learn that there is joy to be found in the present moment, regardless of what the future holds. I also hope that other mothers will feel healed by my music. To quote Toni Morrison, also a mother who started her writing career later in life: “The function of freedom is to free someone else”.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My artist journey has been circuitous, to say the least. Songwriting was my first love in life, but it was not my first – or second – career. I worked in financial services out of college and lived in New York City, which, objectively speaking, was a highly successful thing to do. I was miserable in the job, and consequently, didn’t do my best work. This experience set me on a long path of stripping away layers of other people’s expectations and redefining what success means for me personally. I went to yoga school, got a masters degree in clinical social work, and did my own healing work in psychotherapy. I worked in inpatient psychiatry, outpatient community-based mental health, and ultimately, in private practice, specializing in eating and body image issues.

Becoming a mother, which was also a big dream for me, awakened my creative self in several ways. I simultaneously longed to be with and away from my children, which is something that I think a lot of mothers can relate to. Music helped me modulate that tension. It gave me somewhere to go with them in difficult moments, and something to think about when I was bored. Ultimately, expressing myself as a musical artist is the culmination of my life’s work thus far.

My music is different because it looks through a lens of self awareness and vulnerability that is informed by both clinical training and personal life experience. It is the part of me that I want my children to remember, and I am deeply proud of that. My path has certainly not been easy, but I will say that it has been guided by pivotal moments of crystal clarity that leave me (mostly) free of doubt and exhilarated by what the future holds.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love LA and look forward to doing more work there. My most vivid memories are eating at a restaurant called The Tasting Kitchen in Venice Beach, seeing Smokey Robinson at The Hollywood Bowl, and riding bikes in Santa Monica. My family and I would love to live in LA one day.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my two little boys, who are my greatest inspiration, and to my husband, whose enormous heart and support allow me to safely follow my inner voice.

I would also like to give a shoutout to my mother for making me take piano lessons. I was not always happy about it as a kid, but I am eternally grateful.

Finally, my high school English teacher, Joe Croker, who taught me how to write my first song and told me I had “it”. He continues to support my music, even though it took me twenty years to listen to him.

Website: www.laurenminearmusic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenminearmusic/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-minear-700190110/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/laminearmusic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurenminearmusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4XJIcAZWSuYDyuoq-xc47w

Other: https://bio.to/laurenminear https://laurenminear.lnk.to/soul-tied https://soundcloud.com/lauren-minear

Image Credits
Portraits by Jeffrey Mosier