Meet Laurie Helgoe, Ph.D.
Artist | Introvert | Author | Psychologist | Passionate Observer
Dr. Helgoe is an accomplished author and artist. Her life’s work weaves her experience as a clinical psychologist with her affinity for the arts. An introvert and “passionate observer,” she authored the groundbreaking book INTROVERT POWER: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength (Sourcebooks, 2013, 2008; Publishers Weekly starred), which is published in seven languages. The book is not only a beacon for introverts around the globe; its insights inspired Dr. Helgoe to bring the solitary pleasure of oil painting into the center of her life. Her works include portraiture as well as landscapes, and she has exhibited at The Purple Moon in Charleston, West Virginia, and, in Minneapolis, at the Tipton-Hammond Arts and the Fine Arts Center galleries. In 2026, she retired from her core faculty position with Augsburg University. With her artistic life at the core, she continues to teach doctoral clinical psychology students in an adjunct capacity, helping students access and utilize their creative sensitivities as a therapeutic tool.
_edited.jpg)
Artist Statement (Why I Paint)
As I review my life, there is a dividing line, marked by a small painting. Before viewing that painting, I had defined myself as a psychologist and an author. Though I descended from painters and hungrily consumed art in my spare time, claiming the identity of artist had remained a distant dream.
The painting hung on the wall in a local gallery. It portrayed a young man with warm brown eyes, painted in the style of Rembrandt. My husband eyed it, said we should buy it. I looked. I agreed. That painting, now hanging in our home, led me to the painter and master of oil technique and portraiture, Arthur Evans. Arthur became my teacher. In his studio, I stepped across that line. I remember the moment. Arthur, as he did, nudged me. “Try oils.” Supplies at hand, he set me in front of my canvas and showed me how to start. As my brush put tones on the canvas, I watched myself. With his simple instructions —“attend to light and dark” — I took off, finding the image as if led by another hand. I knew how to do this. As I saw myself painting, I felt a rush of recognition.
I made sense to me.
My sensitivity, fussiness, attention to subtlety — made sense. Qualities that had made life harder for me made painting natural and easier. And faces: when Arthur nudged me toward portraiture, I was intimidated — until I started. I had looked at so many faces while practicing as a psychologist. Painting them was a new form of intimacy. That moment was a little more than a decade and many paintings past. Arthur died in 2026. In nudging me across that line, Arthur — and painting —changed my life.
“I do not know how to thank you,” Mary Oliver penned in her tribute to Franz Marc1, whose paintings I cherish. The best I can do to thank Arthur Evans is to accept the gift that felt too big to be true – he said there was no more he could teach me – and to live out my life as an artist.
Art, in all its forms, helps me comprehend the grand and intricate beauty of life. As I render a face on canvas, I meet it in a different way. I see it. As I watch a movie on screen, I see my life more clearly. Great literature, vibrant pigments, stone made flesh in a sculpture – art is my therapy. In sharing my art, I offer the most powerful therapy I am able to give.
1Mary Oliver (2014), Franz Marc’s Blue Horses, in Blue Horses: Poems, The Penguin Press.
Introvert
In 2008, Dr. Helgoe’s book INTROVERT POWER presented introverts with a new message and a refreshing challenge: to radically accept their orientation to the inner life and to indulge in its riches – and, in so doing, to reclaim their hidden strength for engagement with the world. Publishers Weekly applauded Helgoe’s “vivid and engaging” writing and tagged their review with a coveted star. Now published in seven languages and in its expanded second edition, the book is considered a modern classic – one that spurred on a revolution.
But for Laurie Helgoe, the book is deeply personal. It represents her reconciliation with her own nature – with the small, ninth child of 10 who authored and illustrated tiny books with pencil and crayon, designed and constructed interiors in the woods, and was frequently called out of hiding or jarred back to her boredom from the pleasure of a daydream. In calling others back to their comfortable zones, she reminded herself she could go there too.
It is in that comfort zone that Laurie learned to write, to tell stories and integrate complex ideas, to observe and understand people, and to paint. For all those who tell solitary creatives to get out of their comfort zones, Dr. Helgoe counters, “Go back in! Go farther. Look around. Make yourself at home.”
Laurie appreciates the support of her comfort zone as she enjoys--and frequently negotiates--life with her husband, Barron. As their marriage approached 40 years, the two of them started recording their animated conversations. Those conversations became the podcast series, The Incompatibles. Listen here.
Author
Helgoe is a lifetime writer and the author of six books spanning topics from personality (Introvert Power) to relationships (guides to both dating and breaking up!), anxiety (The Anxiety Answer Book), and parenting (the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Raising Boys). Her most recent book, Fragile Bully: Understanding Our Destructive Affair with Narcissism in the Age of Trump (Diversion Books, 2019), explores the relationship between narcissism and American political and interpersonal discourse. Dr. Helgoe also authored the Psychology Today cover story, “Revenge of the Introvert,” wrote an expert contribution for the textbook, Contemporary Organizational Behavior in Action (Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2016), and has been quoted in several national and international publications, including the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Listen to Laurie on We Need to Talk with Dr. Darcy Sterling podcast.
Psychologist
Dr. Helgoe is a clinical psychologist (Psychologist Emeritus, State of MN) with a broad background in clinical practice, education, and scholarship. She has served in a variety of settings, including rural human services, urban private practice, and teaching institutions such as Hamm Clinic. Her teaching background spans undergraduate and graduate faculty positions. She most recently served as a Clinical Associate Professor and core faculty in the doctoral Clinical Psychology Program at Augsburg University in Minneapolis.
Dr. Helgoe’s scholarly interests have focused on the relationship between personality and culture. Her book, Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength (Sourcebooks, 2013, 2008) challenged Western biases toward extraversion and contributed to the groundswell that kept introversion out of the diagnostic manuals. Dr. Helgoe has a strong interest and background in theories of psychotherapy, particularly psychodynamic, humanistic/experiential, postmodern, and integrative approaches. As a professional oil painter and avid moviegoer, she enjoys exploring the relationship between artistic engagement and mindfulness.
Passionate Observer
In his essay, “The Painter of Modern Life,” the French poet Charles Baudelaire described the flâneur as a “passionate spectator” – one who sets up shop in the ebb and flow, but who also stays removed enough to pay attention. Though penned in 1963, Baudelaire identified one of the greatest challenges of our time as well: how do we comprehend the beauty of the moments we are living while we are living them? Psychologists would do well to consult with Baudelaire.
As I render an image on canvas, I meet it in a different way. I see it. As I watch a movie on screen, I see my life more clearly. Great literature, vibrant pigments, stone made flesh in a sculpture – art is my therapy. Through my art, I hope to wake you up to the exquisite nature of what is right in front of you.