Lawrence Matheny, LPC, LMFT
Compassionate practical therapy for real-life struggles
About Lawrence
Lawrence Matheny is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) practicing in Virginia. He draws on more than three decades of clinical experience to help people manage stress, anxiety, mood disorders, addiction, grief, and relationship struggles.
Background and approach
He speaks English and brings a calm, matter-of-fact approach to sessions. He spent much of his career in psychiatric hospitals and community mental health and substance use settings.
That background gives him experience with complex diagnoses and long-term treatment plans. He also worked in pastoral ministry for many years and holds a master’s degree in Counseling and a master’s degree in Pastoral Ministry.
In sessions he centers the person’s own strengths and goals. He uses straightforward conversation to help people identify what’s getting in the way and try practical steps to change.
He can include a client’s faith or spiritual resources when that matters to the person. Lawrence uses Client-Centered, Cognitive Behavioral, Solution-Focused, and Trauma-Focused approaches to address problems like depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress, substance use, and relationship conflict.
He aims to help clients move from feeling stuck to making realistic changes that fit their life. His work includes support for parenting challenges, caregiver stress, aging and geriatric concerns, autism spectrum issues, codependency, and coping after disasters.
Lawrence brings patient, steady guidance and practical suggestions based on many years of direct practice. People who prefer plain language and clear options often find his style helpful.
He focuses on small, doable steps that lead to noticeable differences in daily life.
Online approaches that focus on change and strengths
Lawrence uses Client-Centered Therapy to follow each person’s priorities and build on strengths. That approach means sessions begin with the client’s concerns and the therapist listens, reflects, and helps identify goals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps people see how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect and teaches practical skills to reduce anxiety, manage mood, and change unhelpful behaviors. Solution-Focused Therapy zeroes in on small, achievable steps and what works already, so progress can begin quickly.Choosing the right approach is a shared process. He will talk with each client about goals, preferences, and past experiences and together they will try methods that fit the person’s life. Adjustments are made along the way so the work stays relevant and useful.
Online therapy offers flexibility for people with busy schedules or limited travel options. Video calls allow fuller conversation and nonverbal cues, phone sessions can be helpful when bandwidth is limited or a quicker check-in is needed, and live chat or text-based messaging lets someone send updates or work through brief concerns between sessions. These options make it easier to keep consistent therapy while balancing daily responsibilities.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Grief
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self esteem
- Trauma and abuse
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 34 years
- Licensed
- Virginia
- Languages
- English