About Lara
Lara Shemali is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) practicing in Washington. She brings 29 years of experience helping people reduce stress, manage anxiety, and work through relationship and trauma-related concerns. She uses practical tools and straightforward conversation to help people feel more steady and confident.
She focuses on depression, self-esteem, and recovery from substance and alcohol problems. Lara also supports people facing abandonment, attachment struggles, avoidant personality patterns, and issues around commitment and communication.
How Lara works
She has experience addressing body image, chronic illness and pain, dissociation, and domestic violence recovery. Her approach draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Emotionally-Focused Therapy, Client-Centered Therapy, and Existential Therapy. Sessions emphasize clear, real-world strategies such as behavior changes, values-based choices, and helping people name and track difficult emotions.
Conversations aim to be direct, respectful, and practical so clients can use what they learn between sessions. Lara understands how busy schedules get in the way of care. She offers weekday hours and may arrange evening or weekend sessions when possible.
She helps clients find workable times and a rhythm that fits their responsibilities. Starting therapy is framed as a collaborative step. Lara works with each person to set goals, pick tools that make sense, and adjust the plan over time as progress and challenges appear.
Lara lists 5 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.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LMHC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 29 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Washington |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people clarify what matters to them and take small committed steps toward those values while learning to live with difficult emotions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on noticing patterns in thoughts and behaviors and testing new, helpful ways of responding to reduce anxiety and depression. Emotionally-Focused Therapy centers on identifying core emotions in relationships and improving how someone expresses needs and connects with others.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. Plans are adjusted over time, with the client helping decide which tools feel most useful.
Online sessions are available as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, offering flexibility for different routines. Video lets people use visual cues and direct interaction. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth or movement makes video hard. Live chat and text-based messaging provide shorter check-ins and ongoing written support between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and reach licensed professionals from wherever someone is located.
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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