About Laura
Laura Akins greets people with a calm, down-to-earth approach. She keeps sessions conversational and direct, listening first to understand what is wearing someone down. Her style is simple and steady - one person talking with another to find more peace and purpose in daily life.
With 34 years of experience, Laura brings long-term perspective to stress, anxiety, depression, grief, and relationship concerns. She also helps people facing addictions, trauma and abuse, and career or life transitions.
Background and approach
Her work includes support for first responder issues, codependency, forgiveness, guilt and shame, and questions about life purpose. Laura uses approaches that focus on values, thoughts, and emotions. She draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Emotionally-Focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Client-Centered principles.
Sessions aim to clarify what matters to each person and build practical steps toward those goals. Her graduate research explored spiritual development, and she invites discussion of spiritual beliefs when clients want that included. She says spiritual ideas can be part of solving emotional and practical problems, regardless of a person’s faith or background.
Laura holds a Licensed Professional Counselor credential in Texas. She describes therapy as a shared process, shaped by the client’s needs and life story. People who want straightforward conversation about feelings, choices, and next steps may find her approach a helpful fit.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online sessions
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on clarifying personal values and taking actions that reflect those values. It helps with anxiety, depression, and feeling stuck by teaching ways to accept difficult thoughts while moving toward meaningful goals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT, works on identifying unhelpful thoughts and trying practical experiments to change behavior and mood. It is useful for anxiety, low mood, and patterns that keep problems going. Emotionally-Focused Therapy, EFT, helps people notice and name their emotions so those feelings can be worked through and connected to clearer choices; it is often used when emotions feel overwhelming or confusing.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods match their needs, goals, and preferences. That collaboration can include trying different techniques and adjusting based on what helps most in weekly sessions.
Online sessions use video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video lets people use visual cues and longer conversation, phone can fit a quick check-in or lower bandwidth, live chat supports shorter real-time exchanges, and messaging allows ongoing reflection between sessions. This range makes it easier to fit therapy into workdays, caregiving schedules, or other routines while still using evidence-informed approaches.
Questions people ask
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What credentials and location are listed for this therapist?
Are sessions offered in other languages or internationally?
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 34 years
- Licensed
- Texas
- Languages
- English