Andrew Laue
Andrew has spent the past 35 years working at the intersection of human potential and the realities of struggle, suffering, and injustice. He has been guided to work from the place voiced by Frederick Buechner, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
He received his training at the University of Chicago, earning a joint degree from the School of Social Work and the Divinity School. There he engaged in dynamic clinical social work in urban Chicago, supporting children and adolescents who had been removed from their family systems. Witnessing both the profound trauma these young people endured and the resilience they embodied became a lasting guide for his future work.
After moving to Western Montana in 1994, Andrew began a 35-year journey working on the Flathead Indian Reservation. In a community shaped by seven generations of genocidal threat, he learned through the practice of cultural humility and was deeply influenced by the wisdom of Indigenous resilience. Mentor Dr. Geyda Swaney taught him, “You can never talk about generational trauma without also addressing generational resilience.”
Wherever complex human needs arise, Andrew brings a grounded, deeply human presence combined with cutting-edge clinical theory to help unleash individual and collective capacity. During the height of the HIV pandemic, he played a leadership role in developing effective prevention programs for the LGBTQ+ community and was honored with the Montana Governor’s Award for HIV Prevention.
Recognizing gaps in community care, Andrew helped create the first mental health training program for the uninsured at Partnership Health Center in Missoula. When residential resources for children with complex mental health needs were lacking, he helped develop attachment-informed services at Partnership for Children. Over 15 years of clinical supervision, he supported and trained emerging clinicians working with some of the most highly traumatized individuals in the region. Through this work, he came to understand the profound personal toll borne by human service professionals.
In 2016, responding directly to community needs, Andrew developed Secondary Trauma Activates Resilience (STAR) Training to make human service work more sustainable. This training addresses the cumulative impact of trauma on the mind, body, and nervous system, offering practical individual and collective tools for regulation and resilience. Over the past decade, this work has expanded across the Northwestern United States and into diverse sectors, including healthcare, law, education, human services, and conservation.
His recent collaborations with the Western Conservation Leadership Development Program through Eco-Alliances for Change demonstrate that these core resilience principles are universally applicable—wherever people are working amid complexity, uncertainty, and the shared challenges of our time. Learn more here: www.activateresiliency.com.
