Laura Schmidt, MD, LCSW-C

Laura Schmidt is a licensed therapist in Maryland with 25 years of clinical experience supporting people through significant emotional challenges and life transitions. She holds an MD, a medical degree, and an LCSW-C, which identifies her as a licensed clinical social worker in clinical practice, and combines medical and social work perspectives to offer holistic care.

Her work focuses on depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, trauma and abuse, and coping with life changes. She guides clients toward greater self-understanding, helping them rebuild communication skills, address attachment and abandonment concerns, and rediscover a sense of purpose. With an emphasis on self-love and resilience, she also supports issues such as body image, caregiver stress, isolation, and impulsivity.

Laura draws on evidence-based methods including cognitive behavioral techniques and somatic modalities to help people reshape unhelpful thought patterns and reconnect with the body’s signals. Her practice is trauma-informed and systems-aware, recognizing how family, social, and developmental influences shape current difficulties. She works collaboratively in a strengths-oriented manner, offering practical tools and insights to help teens, college students, women, and adults move from feeling stuck toward greater groundedness and connection.

Clients can expect an empowering, compassionate approach that aims to transform challenge into growth and to support lasting, sustainable change at every stage of life.

Evidence-based approaches for online healing and growth

Laura Schmidt integrates cognitive behavioral therapy, a structured approach that helps people identify and change unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and improve coping skills. She also incorporates somatic modalities, which focus on how the body holds stress and trauma and offer practices to restore regulation through attention to breath, movement, and bodily awareness. Additionally, she brings a trauma-informed perspective that recognizes how past experiences shape present reactions and relationships and supports paced, safety-oriented work for healing.

Finding the right therapeutic approach is part of the process and Laura works collaboratively with each person to tailor methods to their needs, goals, and preferences. Together they explore what feels most helpful, adjusting techniques over time to build resilience and sustainable change.

Online therapy offers flexibility and accessibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, allowing people to receive consistent support from licensed professionals without rearranging major portions of their day. These options make it easier to maintain continuity of care, try different formats for difficult conversations, and integrate therapy into a busy life.