About Lara
Lara Ashbaugh is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) practicing in Missouri. She brings 10 years of experience to sessions and focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and major life changes. Lara uses conversational, down-to-earth language so clients can talk about what matters to them.
Lara draws on acceptance and commitment ideas alongside cognitive behavioral techniques. She blends those with dialectical behavior skills and mindfulness to help people notice patterns and try new responses.
How Lara works
Sessions are collaborative and practical, with an emphasis on small changes that fit everyday life. She supports people dealing with grief, addictive behaviors, trauma and abuse, and challenges around self-esteem and anger. Additional areas she addresses include career questions, parenting stresses, ADHD, bipolar concerns, and issues related to adoption and foster care.
Lara also works with topics like body image, fertility struggles, gender dysphoria, and communication problems. Her style is warm and interactive. She aims to treat clients with respect and compassion, avoiding stigmatizing labels.
Conversations and plans are shaped around each person's strengths and goals, and she often highlights what is already going well to build momentum. Lara welcomes action-oriented work alongside reflective practices. She tailors her approach so people can practice coping skills between sessions and track progress over time.
The goal is clearer choices, stronger coping, and more manageable day-to-day living.
Lara lists 7 ways of working on the entry:
What Lara works with
The areas below are the ones Lara selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 10 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Missouri |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Practical therapy approaches for online work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on noticing difficult thoughts and choosing actions that reflect personal values. It helps people move toward meaningful goals even when feelings are uncomfortable. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps identify unhelpful thinking and try different behaviors to reduce symptoms like anxiety and low mood. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches specific skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and improving relationships. Finding the right approach is part of the process. Lara works collaboratively to explore which methods fit a person's needs and goals. She adapts exercises and the pace of work based on what the client prefers and what shows results in early sessions. Online formats make it easier to keep therapy consistent with a busy life. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in fits a break at work. Live chat and text-based messaging let people send notes between sessions and use brief check-ins for skill practice. These options offer flexibility so therapy can fit daily routines and practical constraints.Start online instead of waiting
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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