About Lara
Lara Shemali is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) based in Washington with 29 years of experience. She focuses on helping people reduce stress and manage anxiety. She also supports work on relationships, trauma and abuse, self-esteem, and depression.
She uses clear, practical tools clients can try between sessions. Sessions are straightforward and focused on real-life problems like communication, commitment issues, and blended family stress. She also addresses complex concerns such as addiction recovery, dissociation, and chronic illness management.
Background and approach
Her approach blends cognitive behavioral techniques with acceptance-based ideas and emotion-focused work. That means talking about thoughts and behaviors, noticing what matters most, and strengthening emotional bonds and understanding. The therapist aims for a direct but gentle style that helps people make changes that last.
Lara makes space for frank conversations about sensitive topics, including body image, BDSM and kink culture, and attachment wounds. She emphasizes respect and nonjudgment so clients can talk openly about their experiences and goals. Practical coping skills are taught alongside reflection about values and relationships.
She recognizes busy schedules and offers weekday hours plus some evening and weekend availability when possible. People may coordinate session times to fit work and family demands. The initial step is simply reaching out and completing a brief matching questionnaire to schedule the first appointment.
Approaches for online care and anxiety support
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. It is useful for anxiety, stress, and questions about meaning and commitment. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT, focuses on spotting and shifting thought patterns and behaviors that keep problems going. It often includes concrete exercises and practice you can do between sessions.Finding the best approach is part of the work together. The therapist will listen to your goals and preferences and suggest methods that fit your situation. Decisions about which techniques to use are made collaboratively and can change as your needs evolve.
Online sessions can take place by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to suit different needs. Video is helpful for in-depth conversations and visual cues, phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited, chat or messaging are useful for quick check-ins or shorter exchanges. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules, allow for timely follow-ups, and provide flexibility when life demands shift.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- 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
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 29 years
- Licensed
- Washington
- Languages
- English
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