About Brenda
Brenda Lauer is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with 15 years of experience in independent practice. She has worked with people from many backgrounds, including military and first responder communities, and has supported concerns such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, and ADHD. Brenda works part time, usually in the afternoons on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and offers therapy in English.
Brenda uses a warm, gentle style and centers sessions on each person's perspective.
Background and approach
She listens first, then helps widen how people see their situation. Her approach is collaborative and respectful, with an emphasis on compassion and practical steps. She draws from several approaches including cognitive-behavioral strategies and mindfulness to help manage thoughts and reactions.
She also uses client-centered ideas to focus on the person's goals and Emotionally-Focused Therapy to address strong feelings in the moment. Brenda adapts methods rather than following a single formula. Many people come to her for help with stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, anger, and depression.
She also has experience with adoption and foster care topics, caregiving strain, chronic illness and pain, body image, attachment concerns, and communication problems. Brenda accepts international clients and offers sessions by video call, phone, live chat, or text messaging. Her practice uses a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
To begin, users complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule according to her availability.
Approaches that shape online sessions
Brenda often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people notice and change unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors. CBT can help with anxiety, depression, and stress by giving concrete tools to test thoughts and try new actions.She also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which focuses on accepting difficult thoughts and committing to actions that match a person’s values. ACT can be useful for long-standing worries or when avoidance has become a habit.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Brenda will discuss goals, try methods that fit a person’s needs, and adjust techniques based on what helps. The choice of approach is collaborative and may change as therapy moves forward.
Online therapy offers flexibility for different schedules and needs. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation in real time. Phone sessions can fit into a short break or require less bandwidth. Live chat and text messaging are useful for brief check-ins, journaling, or when someone prefers typing to talking. These options make it easier to keep continuity and practice tools between sessions.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Missouri
- Languages
- English
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