Dr. Lori Dougherty, LMFT

Dr. Lori Dougherty is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) practicing in Colorado with 10 years of professional experience. She works with individuals, couples, and families facing a broad range of concerns, including stress, anxiety, addictions, relationship and family challenges, depression, trauma and abuse, grief, intimacy-related issues, parenting, and self-esteem difficulties. Her additional focus areas include abandonment, blended family issues, codependency, communication problems, control issues, divorce and separation, substance use concerns, family-of-origin dynamics, guilt and shame, impulsivity, infidelity, jealousy, life purpose, and post-traumatic stress.

Dr. Dougherty emphasizes the therapeutic relationship as the foundation for change, approaching each person with respect and curiosity and believing that clients have an innate capacity for growth. She tailors treatment to meet individual goals, serving as both a guide to help uncover strengths and a coach to support the development of new skills. Her work integrates client-centered principles with evidence-informed approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, and mindfulness-based techniques to address emotional pain and build practical coping tools.

Clients can expect a collaborative, strengths-based process that honors their knowledge of themselves while introducing strategies to manage symptoms, improve relationships, and pursue meaningful change. She offers flexible options for connecting, including video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care

Dr. Lori Dougherty draws on client-centered therapy to create a compassionate, nonjudgmental space where clients drive the goals and the therapist listens, reflects, and supports personal insight and growth. This approach is helpful for people navigating relationship challenges, identity questions, and emotional distress because it emphasizes the client-therapist partnership and personal strengths.

She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help clients identify and shift unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns that contribute to anxiety, depression, and stress. CBT offers practical skills for problem solving, emotion regulation, and building routines that support recovery. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) techniques are integrated when clients need tools for managing intense emotions, improving interpersonal effectiveness, and reducing impulsive or self-destructive behaviors.

Finding the right therapeutic approach is part of the process, and Dr. Dougherty collaborates with each person to determine what fits best based on their needs, goals, and preferences. She draws on methods commonly used by licensed professionals and therapists to tailor care in a collaborative way.

Online therapy with Dr. Dougherty offers flexibility - sessions can be scheduled as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging - making it easier to access consistent support amid busy schedules, caregiving responsibilities, or geographic constraints.