About Laura
Laura Stapp is a licensed clinical social worker in California with 20 years of experience. She focuses on relationship strain, family conflict, trauma and abuse, parenting struggles, and anger. She uses straightforward, respectful communication to help people feel heard and to identify practical next steps.
She believes each person knows their story best and brings strengths to the work. Sessions focus on clear goals and small, manageable changes. Laura listens for patterns that feed frustration or disconnection and helps people try new ways of interacting.
Background and approach
Her background includes long experience with trauma-related concerns and adoption-related matters. She has worked with people coping with separation, domestic violence, attachment challenges, and caregiver stress. Over time she has helped clients address communication breakdowns, commitment fears, and issues around body image and aging.
In sessions she draws on evidence-based therapeutic techniques aimed at processing trauma and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. She offers practical tools for anger management and parenting challenges. The tone is collaborative, direct, and aimed at outcomes that matter day to day.
People interested in starting therapy are invited to take a first step at their own pace. Laura supports people through planning and problem solving, whether they want short-term work on a specific issue or ongoing help navigating life changes.
Approaches and how online sessions help
Laura uses evidence-based techniques focused on trauma processing and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. For trauma work she draws on approaches that help people process distressing memories and reduce their emotional intensity, which can ease symptoms that interfere with daily life. For cognitive-behavioral work she focuses on identifying patterns of thinking and behavior and practicing small changes that lead to better communication and mood.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will listen to your goals, try methods that fit your needs, and adjust the plan as you learn what helps. That collaborative process helps tailor techniques to your situation and preferences.
Online therapy offers flexibility across several formats: video calls for a face-to-face feel, phone sessions when bandwidth is limited or a camera isn't wanted, live chat for shorter check-ins, and text-based messaging for ongoing support between sessions. These options make it easier to schedule around work, school, caregiving, or medical appointments and let people pick the format that best fits their day-to-day life.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does she help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How long has she been practicing?
What credentials and location are listed?
Can I work with her if I live outside the United States?
What session formats are available?
How are sessions paid for and what do they cost?
What do I need to do to begin working with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Young adult issues
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English