TheraCourses’ Leadership
Our Founders
Laura Goldstein, LCMFT
Founder, TheraCourses
Laura Goldstein is a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist in Rockville MD, and founder and director of Montgomery County Counseling Center, LLC, and founder of TheraCourses!
She got her Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Then earned her Master’s Degree in Family Therapy from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA. Since then she has worked across multiple settings: in-home behavioral health services, adolescent substance use intensive outpatient programs, an agency for young adults struggling to launch, and her own private practice.
In 2015, she was trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) from Behavioral Tech. Since then, she has been fine tuning the application of DBT into individual therapy, parent coaching, and family therapy. She also trained in 2017 with The Gottman Couples Method, which is a seamless integration of DBT concepts when working with couples.
Laura found a love of teaching and public speaking in 2019. She has led multiple trainings for interns, therapists, and school social workers & counselors across topics including DBT, substance use, family & parent therapy, self-care, and more! She brings training to businesses looking to provide mental health and relationship education to their staff. She leads in-school conversations for students to destigmatize mental health awareness. And she has incorporated aspects of all of these trainings for parents in schools and religious communities to bring preventative content directly into the hands, ears, and hearts of people who need it!
With over 10 years of experience in the field, Laura has established herself as a local expert in relationship therapy, public speaking, and therapy practice management!
Emily Renda, MS
Director of Education, TheraCourses
Emily earned her undergraduate degree in Middle School Education with a focus in Science and English from Towson University in 2015. She immediately started teaching for Baltimore County Public Schools and in 2019, served as department chair, leading the team of educators in the science department.
Through this experience, she realized that in addition to teaching young people, she enjoyed coaching others. She started her Masters program with Towson University in 2017, developing skills in educational leadership. In 2021, Emily graduated with a leadership certificate and a Masters of Science in Human Resource Development. She maintains teaching certifications in both Science and English for middle level learners.
Emily is extensively trained in UDL (Universal Design for Learning), which is a framework that optimizes learning for all people, based on scientific evidence of how people learn. The framework not only considers what an individual is learning, but also how and why learning occurs. She is also trained in SEL (Social Emotional Learning) practices, which guide people through learning skills to manage emotions, understand themselves as learners, empathize with others, achieve goals, and make responsible decisions. More recently, Emily has been focused on supporting clients with ADHD and other mental health struggles that often come with EF challenges. She brings the hidden SEL curriculum to the forefront in her executive functioning coaching work!
In 2021, Emily joined Montgomery County Counseling Center as the lead executive functioning coach. Emily has been beyond instrumental in bringing the vision of TheraCourses to life! She has refined curriculums. She has improved presentations. She has created workbooks! But most notably, Emily has been Laura’s de facto EF coach, brainstorming partner, cheerleader, and all around best friend! For that, Laura will be forever grateful in immeasurable ways that words cannot describe here.
Course Author Interest Form
If you are a mental health provider with a course to share with the public, consider bringing it to TheraCourses. We will work together to develop, produce and market your course vision on our platform. And we’ll make sure it stays accessible, affordable, and approachable.
To join us as a course author, submit the form below.