About Laura
Laura Leatherman is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 12 years of experience. She practices in Virginia and focuses on anxiety, stress, depression, and relationship concerns. She aims to treat each person with respect and kindness while helping them move toward clearer goals.
She draws on client-centered methods to build a trusting working relationship. That means she spends time listening and tailoring sessions to what matters most to the individual.
Background and approach
She uses cognitive behavioral strategies to help people notice and change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns that feed anxiety and low mood. Solution-focused techniques are used to identify small, practical steps people can try between sessions. These short-term goals are aimed at improving sleep, managing anger, easing career stress, or addressing parenting strains.
Laura also has experience supporting people after trauma and abuse and in settings such as outpatient clinics, hospitals, residential programs, and emergency shelters. Her approach is straightforward and goal-oriented while remaining warm and nonjudgmental. She works with issues like attention challenges, social anxiety, blended family concerns, and caregiver stress.
Clients can expect a collaborative process that balances immediate coping tools with longer-term problem solving. Laura earned her master’s degree from the University of South Carolina and holds a Virginia LCSW. She provides therapy in English and uses practical strategies to help people cope with life changes and rebuild confidence.
How her approaches work in online therapy
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and building a strong working relationship. The therapist follows the person’s lead, reflects what they say, and helps clarify goals so sessions address what matters most. This approach is useful for people who want a supportive, understanding space to make changes.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps people identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and try practical experiments to change them. It’s often used for anxiety, sleep problems, low mood, and anger by teaching specific strategies to manage symptoms and test new ways of coping.
Solution-Focused Therapy concentrates on small, achievable steps and what works now. Sessions aim to set clear, short-term goals and to build on strengths and past successes to create forward momentum.
Choosing the best approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss options, listen to a person’s needs and preferences, and adjust techniques over time. That means people help shape the focus and pace of work to fit their life and goals.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video can support deeper conversation and visual cues, phone works when bandwidth is limited, live chat or text may suit quick check-ins or busy schedules, and messaging lets people share updates between sessions. These options help fit therapy into work, family, or school routines while keeping the focus on practical steps and steady progress.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family problems
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Parenting issues
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 12 years
- Licensed
- Virginia
- Languages
- English
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