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Laura Firestone
Psychotherapist, Consultant and Trainer
Professional Background
Laura Firestone is an accomplished therapist known for her dedication and expertise in the field of marriage and family therapy. Located in the picturesque neighborhood of Pacific Heights, Laura operates her private practice, providing invaluable support to both individuals and couples navigating an array of life’s challenges. With a career spanning several years, she has made significant contributions in various therapeutic settings. Laura’s journey in mental health began at the University of California, Davis, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. Building on her strong foundation in psychology, she went on to earn a Master of Science in Marriage Family Therapy from Northwestern University, an achievement that set the stage for her advanced practice in psychotherapy.
Laura began her professional career as a therapist trainee at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, where she honed her skills in therapy and counseling. Following her training, she expanded her experience by working as a therapist at Youth and Family Enrichment Services, where she engaged with both children and families in a supportive and nurturing environment. Enhancing her clinical expertise, Laura served as an Adult and Adolescent Therapist at Ohlhoff Recovery Services, where she provided care for individuals dealing with recovery and life transitions. She further enriched her professional experience as a therapist at the Edgewood Center for Children and Families, guiding young people and their families through various psychological challenges.
Education and Achievements
Laura Firestone's educational background is exemplary, with her undergraduate studies at the prestigious University of California, Davis, followed by her advanced training at Northwestern University in Marriage Family Therapy. As a research assistant during her studies, Laura engaged in significant research on marital communication and the emotional dynamics influencing long-term relationships. This early involvement in empirical research provided her with a nuanced understanding of interpersonal dynamics, an understanding she applies in her therapy work every day.
A notable aspect of Laura’s practice is her specialization in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which focuses on enhancing emotional bonding between couples. Through her extensive training, Laura has gained advanced proficiency in addressing issues of communication, intimacy, commitment, and relationship compatibility. She is passionate about empowering couples to strengthen their connections and navigate challenges together effectively. To help couples ready to embark on the journey of marriage, Laura facilitates a 6-week pre-marital group, aiding them in establishing a solid foundation for their future together. Additionally, her expertise extends to addressing an array of mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, stress management, grief, trauma, and life transitions.
In her commitment to professional development and administration, Laura serves as a BBS clinical supervisor to Counseling Graduate Students at the University of San Francisco's Center for Child & Family Development, as well as Clinical Psychology Graduate Students at the CSPP PsyD Program. Through this mentorship role, she not only contributes to the growth of aspiring therapists but also upholds the highest standards of practice within the therapeutic community.
Professional Affiliations
Laura Firestone is actively involved in several professional organizations, reflecting her commitment to continuous improvement and professional development. She is a proud member of the San Francisco Chapter of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (SFCAMFT), where she collaborates with fellow professionals to enhance the practice of therapy. Additionally, Laura is a member of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) and the National Collaborative for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (NCCBT). Her involvement with the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) and the National Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy (NCCEFT), where she currently serves as Chair Elect, highlights her dedication to advancing the practice of EFT and supporting clinicians in their professional journeys.
Through her professional associations, Laura remains at the forefront of new developments in psychotherapy, ensuring that her practice is informed by the latest research and best practices in the field.
Notable Achievements
Laura Firestone’s extensive training and experience have led her to become a sought-after therapist, known for her empathetic and results-driven approach. Over the years, she has participated in numerous workshops and training sessions, continuously enhancing her expertise and keeping abreast of the latest therapeutic modalities. Her impact extends beyond her individual client work as she also dedicates time to training the community, particularly focusing on the effects of trauma on children. This commitment to community education showcases her desire to make a broader impact in the field of mental health.
Laura Firestone represents the epitome of professionalism in her field. With a strong educational foundation, extensive training, and a passion for therapeutic practice, she is a beacon of hope and support for those seeking guidance and healing. Her multifaceted approach to therapy, alongside her dedication to mentoring future therapists, ensures that Laura will continue to make a lasting impact in the lives of individuals, couples, and families for many years to come.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.