About Laura
Laura Leadley is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) with two decades of clinical experience. She helps people manage stress and anxiety, address addictions, work through relationship and family concerns, and build healthier self-esteem. Her approach is direct and practical and aimed at everyday problems that feel overwhelming.
Laura listens to each person’s story and looks for steps that can bring relief. She focuses on what is getting in the way now and tries to identify small, achievable changes.
How Laura works
Sessions are conversational and collaborative, not lecture-style, so people leave with clear ideas to try between meetings. Her practice covers a wide range of concerns, including abandonment, adoption and foster care questions, attachment and codependency issues, communication and control problems, and struggles with body image or eating.
She also works with people facing divorce and separation, domestic violence histories, and drug or alcohol addiction. In sessions she pays attention to patterns that repeat across relationships and life choices. Laura helps people see those patterns, test new ways of relating, and practice different coping skills.
Over time clients often notice less reactivity and more confidence in their decisions. Laura offers multiple formats for sessions to fit different schedules and needs. She aims to make therapy practical, readable, and useful for busy lives.
What Laura works with
The areas below are the ones Laura selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Dependent personality
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Iowa |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How evidence-based methods translate to online care
Laura uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on changing patterns and building skills. One common method helps people identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and then practice new ways of thinking and responding; this can reduce anxiety and improve decision making. Another approach she uses looks at the stories people tell about their lives and relationships, helping them rewrite those stories to reduce blame and increase agency.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will ask about your goals, preferences, and what's been tried before, and then suggest techniques to try together. If an approach isn't working, adjustments are made so the work stays useful and practical.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to match different needs. Video calls are good for deeper work where seeing expressions helps, phone sessions can fit a break at work or times with low bandwidth, and chat or messaging supports brief check-ins or follow-up between meetings. These options aim to increase flexibility so people can fit therapy into busy lives.
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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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