- Stress reduction
- Anxiety relief
- Relationship help
About Lara
Lara Shemali is a licensed mental health counselor with 29 years of practice in Washington. She focuses on practical tools to reduce stress and manage anxiety while helping people rebuild confidence and self esteem. Her work also addresses relationship difficulties, trauma and abuse, addiction recovery, and depression.
She talks with people in a straightforward way and aims to create a nonjudgmental space for honest conversation. Sessions emphasize building skills you can use outside of therapy, such as stress reduction techniques and strategies to cope with anxiety. She encourages people to move toward goals that matter to them in daily life.
Her background includes long experience supporting recovery from substance use and other addictive behaviors. She also helps with attachment and abandonment concerns, communication problems, commitment issues, and difficulties that come with blended-family dynamics. Body image, chronic pain or illness, and dissociation are also within her focus.
Lara uses a mix of commonly used therapeutic approaches to match each person’s needs. That includes methods that look at thoughts and behaviors, approaches that emphasize emotional connection, and work that supports values-based choices. She will tailor the balance of these methods to your situation.
She recognizes that scheduling can be a barrier, so she offers weekday hours and may provide evening or weekend appointments when available. To begin, people complete a short intake and schedule a session based on what works for them. Her goal is to help people take steady steps toward greater confidence and daily functioning.
She talks with people in a straightforward way and aims to create a nonjudgmental space for honest conversation. Sessions emphasize building skills you can use outside of therapy, such as stress reduction techniques and strategies to cope with anxiety. She encourages people to move toward goals that matter to them in daily life.
Her background includes long experience supporting recovery from substance use and other addictive behaviors. She also helps with attachment and abandonment concerns, communication problems, commitment issues, and difficulties that come with blended-family dynamics. Body image, chronic pain or illness, and dissociation are also within her focus.
Lara uses a mix of commonly used therapeutic approaches to match each person’s needs. That includes methods that look at thoughts and behaviors, approaches that emphasize emotional connection, and work that supports values-based choices. She will tailor the balance of these methods to your situation.
She recognizes that scheduling can be a barrier, so she offers weekday hours and may provide evening or weekend appointments when available. To begin, people complete a short intake and schedule a session based on what works for them. Her goal is to help people take steady steps toward greater confidence and daily functioning.