About Lura
Lura Smedstad is a licensed professional counselor who focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma. She brings twenty years of experience and a practical, compassionate style to sessions. Lura blends talk therapy with creative processes to help clients set workable goals and rebuild daily life.
She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify unhelpful thinking and change behavior patterns. She also draws on Emotionally-Focused Therapy to address painful relationship and intimacy-related issues.
How Lura works
Mindfulness and somatic approaches are woven in to help clients notice bodily responses and learn calming skills. Lura trained in clinical mental health counseling with a concentration in art therapy and completed practicum work in psychiatric settings. She also has a background in ministry work and ran a multi-year personal growth school that served people from many occupations and spiritual paths.
In sessions she aims to be direct yet compassionate, helping people hear their own inner clear guidance. She helps clients create realistic plans for change and build skills they can use between sessions. Based in Minnesota, Lura provides counseling through remote formats.
She holds a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and is a Minnesota LPC. Her approach emphasizes practical steps, emotional awareness, and creative tools for long-term coping.
Lura lists 4 ways of working on the entry:
What Lura works with
The areas below are the ones Lura selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Parenting issues
- Postpartum depression
- Self esteem
- Trauma and abuse
Training and background
| Register | LPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Minnesota |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Approaches that translate well to online therapy
CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and changing behaviors that keep problems going. It is useful for anxiety, depression, stress, and work or career-related struggles. Emotionally-Focused Therapy helps people understand and shift patterns in relationships and intimacy by exploring feelings and attachment needs. It can help people who want clearer connection and improved emotional communication.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will listen to a client’s goals, symptoms, and preferences and suggest which methods to try first. That plan can change as progress is made, and adjustments are made collaboratively throughout care.
Online formats offer flexibility and convenience. Video calls are well suited for deeper sessions that rely on visual cues. Phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited or a quieter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging fit brief updates, coaching between sessions, or people who prefer writing to speaking. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and keep momentum between appointments.
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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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