About Lawrence
Lawrence "Larry" Westenberg is a licensed clinical social worker with 42 years of practice. He brings long experience helping people who feel overwhelmed, anxious, or stuck. Larry favors a strengths and solutions approach focused on the direction the client wants to take.
He began his work in a state hospital back ward, counseling people with severe mental illness and helping them use their own resources. That early work shaped his view that practical help and respect for what people already know matter most.
Background and approach
He later practiced in inpatient, outpatient, partial hospitalization, and crisis settings. Larry uses straightforward tools to address anxiety, trauma and panic, attention differences, relationships, and finding meaning. He also supports people facing addiction, grief, anger, career questions, and life transitions.
His additional focus areas include autism and Asperger syndrome, caregiver stress, communication and control issues, and concerns related to alternative sexual cultures. His methods include client-centered work, cognitive behavioral techniques, existential ideas about meaning, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness practices. He has published on belief change and Ericksonian hypnosis and draws on those influences when useful.
Sessions emphasize identifying strengths and practical steps. Larry works from Illinois and communicates in English. He prefers a collaborative process that helps people reclaim day-to-day functioning and move toward goals they choose.
Therapeutic approaches that adapt well to online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and supporting what the person already knows about themselves. It helps people feel heard, identify strengths, and set clear, realistic goals for change.Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) breaks down thoughts, feelings, and actions into workable steps. It is useful for anxiety, panic, mood shifts, and unhelpful thinking patterns by teaching practical skills to try between sessions.
Mindfulness therapy teaches simple awareness and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and improve concentration. It pairs well with other techniques to manage stress and increase day-to-day calm.
Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with the person about their needs, preferences, and goals and then try methods that match those priorities. Adjustments are made along the way so the work stays useful and relevant.
Online therapy allows work to happen by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is good for full conversations and visual cues, phone works when video is not possible or bandwidth is limited, live chat and messaging suit quick check-ins or written reflection. These options offer flexibility for scheduling, shorter check-ins during a busy day, and steady contact between sessions.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 42 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
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