About Valerie
Valerie LaPorte is a licensed clinical social worker (LICSW) with 21 years of professional experience. She practices from a calm, empathetic stance and focuses on helping people handle stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and life changes. Valerie uses practical tools and active listening to help people feel heard and make steady progress.
She has worked extensively with individuals facing serious mental illness and a wide range of other challenges. That background shapes a straightforward style that is both goal-directed and compassionate.
How Valerie works
She emphasizes dignity, respect, and collaboration in each session. Valerie blends several therapeutic approaches to match the person in front of her. She draws on attachment-based ideas to understand relationship patterns, client-centered work to keep sessions focused on each person's experience, and cognitive behavioral tools to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
Mindfulness and skills from dialectical behavior therapy are available when they fit a person's goals. In practice she uses focused listening and problem solving to build a treatment plan tailored to specific needs. Sessions aim to teach coping skills for things like sleep problems, anger, parenting challenges, substance concerns, and relationship or intimacy struggles.
Valerie also supports people dealing with trauma, abandonment, adoption or foster care issues, and caregiver stress. Her Minnesota licensure and long career are part of how she approaches care. Valerie welcomes conversations in English and is available to work with international clients using online formats that suit the client's schedule and preferences.
Valerie lists 8 ways of working on the entry:
What Valerie works with
The areas below are the ones Valerie selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LICSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 21 |
| 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 guide online care and practical support
Valerie uses attachment-based and client-centered approaches to guide online work. Attachment-based ideas help look at how early relationships shape current reactions and connection struggles, which can be useful for intimacy, abandonment, or communication issues. Client-centered work keeps sessions focused on the person's experience and priorities, with the therapist following the client's lead to build trust and clarity.She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy to identify unhelpful thoughts and try new behaviors. CBT can help with anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and managing strong emotions by teaching concrete strategies and practice between sessions. Valerie will collaborate with each person to choose approaches that fit their goals, needs, and preferences rather than imposing a single method.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy day - short chats for quick check-ins, phone sessions when bandwidth is limited, or video for deeper conversations. The range of formats supports flexibility and ongoing work even when schedules change.
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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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