Laura Shughart, LCSW, CSW

Laura Shughart is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who brings eight years of practice to people navigating stress, anxiety, addiction, sleep troubles, anger, and mood challenges. She centers sessions on collaboration and respect, helping clients bring their own strengths to the work. Her style is warm and straightforward so parents and busy adults can follow the process easily.

Her sessions often use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify unhelpful thinking and shift everyday habits. She also draws on client-centered approaches to make space for each person's priorities and values. Dialectical Behavior Therapy and mindfulness tools are used when intense emotions or self-regulation are part of the picture.

Laura supports people facing relationship strain, grief, caregiving stress, and life transitions. She also has experience with adoption and foster care issues, attachment concerns, body image and intimacy-related questions, and work-related compassion fatigue. Practical problem solving and skill practice are common parts of sessions.

She works with people dealing with bipolar and other mood disorders, substance-related concerns, and sexual expression topics such as BDSM and kink in a nonjudgmental way. Communication skills, forgiveness work, and recomposing life purpose are also areas she helps people address.

Laura practices in Colorado and sees clients in English. She offers multiple online formats for people who need flexible scheduling and shorter check-ins. The tone in sessions is supportive, goal-focused, and paced to each person's needs.

How evidence-based approaches work online

CBT focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and changing behaviors through simple experiments and homework. It helps with anxiety, sleep problems, mood swings, and coping with life changes by breaking big problems into small, manageable steps.

Client-centered work emphasizes listening and building on what already matters to the person. This approach supports goal setting and self-directed growth, and it helps when someone needs a steady, accepting therapeutic relationship.

Finding the right approach is part of therapy. The therapist will talk with each person about their goals and preferences, then collaborate to try methods that fit. Sessions can shift over time so techniques match the problem and what feels most useful.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation and skill practice. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to use video. Live chat and text messaging work well for brief check-ins, coaching-style tasks, and ongoing reminders between longer sessions, offering flexibility for busy schedules.