Laura Wakefield

Laura Wakefield, Licensed Professional Counselor

She/her/hers – what are personal pronouns and why do they matter?

Clients I work with: Adult individuals and couples

Issues I work with: Relationship concerns and conflicts such as communication, emotional intimacy, recurring patterns, unresolved hurts, or fractures of trust and security. Difficulties in managing and coping with OCD, anxiety, depression, trauma, and emotion regulation. Self-worth/self-esteem, identity, family of origin issues, grief and loss, shame, guilt, life transitions, and chronic illness.

 

Research has shown that relationships are, from birth, the key to health and wholeness. I can support you by using the science of attachment and family systems to develop clear and effective ways to navigate your most important relationships – grounded in the belief that when relationships feel secure and satisfying,  you are freed up to live with curiosity, take risks to reach your potential and manage the challenges life sends your way.

The process of creating lasting relationship change often includes an exploration of how to organize and express emotions, ways to honor your own needs while respecting and responding to the needs of others, deepening emotional intimacy, and changing long-held patterns that no longer serve.

My goal is to offer a safe container where you can learn more about yourself and explore the impact that stress, pain, or confusion may have had on how you see yourself and connect with others. My role is to help you to organize your life experiences and what is happening on the inside of you, so that you can access your inner resources, wisdom, and needs. From there, I can help you find ways to share who you are with the people you care about the most. I’m invested in supporting you to access everything you need to create the life you long for and achieve the things that are important to you.

I hold space for how your internal world has been shaped by the world you were born into and the ways you have had to adapt, stay safe, survive, or cope. I work to help you make sense of your strengths, resilience, and resources as well as the vulnerabilities, protections and hurts that often drive your behavior or responses.

I offer care that fits with your particular needs and values while also using evidence-based practices and interventions. Models of therapy that I utilize with clients include Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples and individuals, Internal Family Systems, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) trauma-informed care, Mindfulness-based therapies, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

Using the framework of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, I work to help couples to understand their emotions, needs for connection, hurts, and stress-mitigation systems. This process helps couples to understand the different ways they deal with their relationship, how this can create conflict or distance, and the ways in which their well-worn dance is both created and maintained.

Sessions include going underneath any cycle of conflict and distance, shifting focus away from “who started” the disconnect, and instead, learning more about the missed needs, unseen emotions, and protections that are showing up for each partner during relationship distress. My goal is to help clients understand what is happening within them and between them and then find more effective ways to communicate, build safety, and enjoy greater emotional intimacy.

Together, I can help you learn a shared language for connection that you can lean into time and time again, especially during times of need.

I am also a Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 1 Certified clinician and have received training in the methods and research of John and Julie Gottman, marriage therapists who have deeply impacted the world of couple’s counseling. This model offers practical approaches for handling conflict and building deeper intimacy through the creation of intentional rituals and space for connection.

I am also a Certified Prepare/Enrich Facilitator, trained in this approach to pre-marital and marital counseling, and can provide structured sessions to clients seeking to address common relationship concerns prior to entering into a higher level of relational commitment.

With individual clients, I seek to help them understand their experiences of connection, how these have shaped them, and how these might be serving or limiting them in the present. Many times, this involves reconnecting with aspects of ourselves we may have left behind for good reasons, and learning more about how to create safety, rest, and expression for our mind and body.

In this way, I particularly appreciate the use of EMDR and Internal Family Systems. These approaches involve learning where hurts such as neglect, loss, unsupportive family environments, or stress have impacted your brain and neural networks. The models also examine the way in which you organize your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about yourself and others.

These therapy models work to harness your brain’s capacity for repair and healing and assist it in its innate capacity to move toward health and wholeness. I can assist you with understanding yourself in a deeper way, honoring your hurts and fears, and developing your ability to respond in new ways.

With the understanding that safe attachment is a requirement for growth, my goal as a therapist is to create a space for you to experience acceptance, care, and safety in the ways you may have longed for. I consider it an honor to work with individuals and couples of all nationalities, ethnicities, religions, cultures, sexual identities, and gender identities and my goal is that you see and feel in every session the respect that I hold for all my clients. It is truly an honor to be part of your path toward healing!

Laura is a Licensed Professional Counselor and earned her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling through Liberty University’s CACREP accredited program.  Laura previously has experience working in community settings working with a wide variety of mental concerns and relational needs. Laura has invested in training in individual therapy, trauma, EMDR, couples therapy, pre-marital/pre-commitment therapy, and sex therapy and is invested in serving both individual and couples therapy clients. Laura is a culturally humble, LGBTQIA-allied, and sex-positive therapist.