Laura Todd, LCSW

Laura Todd is a California licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with 16 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and major life changes. She talks with parents about the day-to-day strain of raising children and supports people facing grief, addiction challenges, or mood concerns. Sessions are offered in English and Spanish.

Her approach is practical and skills-focused. She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help clients spot unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors. She also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) tools for handling strong emotions and staying focused on values.

Laura emphasizes clear, teachable skills. People learn techniques for managing anxiety, improving communication, and coping with life transitions. Homework and small experiments between sessions are common to build real-world change.

She works with a wide range of concerns including parenting stress, trauma and abuse recovery, relationship and intimacy issues, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, postpartum depression, and challenges like bipolar disorder or compassion fatigue. Her goal is to help people increase self-awareness and gain practical tools they can use right away.

Laura aims for collaborative care. She helps people set goals, try approaches that fit their life, and adjust as progress unfolds. Getting started typically involves a short matching questionnaire and scheduling an initial session.

How therapy approaches translate to online care

CBT helps people notice thoughts and test them with real-world experiments. Online CBT sessions often include setting small tasks between meetings, tracking patterns, and practicing new behaviors to reduce anxiety or mood symptoms. ACT focuses on values and acceptance while teaching flexible action steps; it is useful for people trying to live meaningfully despite difficult emotions. DBT provides concrete skills for managing intense feelings and improving relationships, such as distress tolerance and emotion regulation, which can be taught and practiced in sessions.

Choosing the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to identify which ideas and techniques fit their goals and daily life. That choice can change over time as needs evolve, and sessions can mix methods to match progress.

Online formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls enable face-to-face conversation and screen-sharing for exercises. Phone sessions can be useful when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging offer brief, frequent support between longer meetings and can help people maintain momentum or practice skills in the moment.