About Laura
Laura Shaw is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 24 years of clinical experience in California. She focuses on helping people manage stress and anxiety, cope with grief, and build stronger self-esteem and confidence. Her approach aims to create an open and nonjudgmental space where emotions and worries can be voiced and understood.
She listens carefully to each person's story and works alongside them to set realistic goals. Sessions center on practical steps people can try between meetings, and on noticing small changes that add up over time.
Background and approach
Laura combines a client-centered stance with tools from cognitive behavioral therapy to help people change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. Parents who are feeling overwhelmed can find clear strategies for everyday challenges and for restoring balance. People facing life transitions, divorce, or loss can talk through decisions and find ways to cope.
She also supports those dealing with attachment concerns, caregiver stress, communication problems, and issues around guilt and forgiveness. Laura draws on years of experience to tailor each session to what feels useful in the moment. She invites curiosity and steady pacing rather than rushing toward quick fixes.
The goal is to help people feel more capable of handling stress and to build habits that support long-term wellbeing. Therapy is offered in English and conducted from California. Sessions use a subscription model that can be canceled at any time, and formats include video, phone, live chat, and text messaging.
To begin, a short matching questionnaire is completed and scheduling is arranged based on the therapist's availability.
How client-centered and CBT approaches work online
Laura uses client-centered therapy to create a respectful space where a person leads the conversation and feels heard. This approach focuses on understanding the person's experience and responding with empathy so they can explore feelings and make choices that fit their life.She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy, which involves identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing practical strategies to change patterns. CBT can help with anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, and coping after loss by teaching concrete skills to try between sessions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Laura will talk with each person about their goals and preferences, then recommend a mix of client-centered listening and CBT techniques. The plan can change as needs evolve so therapy stays relevant and useful.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text messaging to make therapy fit into busy lives. Video is useful for face-to-face conversation, phone works when bandwidth is limited, live chat allows quick check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing reflection and brief check-ins between sessions. These options aim to increase flexibility and make it easier to keep regular contact with a licensed professional.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Grief
- Parenting issues
Also listed
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 24 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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