Rate Laura Van Wyk

As a therapist, I take an integrative approach towards treating my clients. I believe that no two clients are the same and I approach treatment in a customized way that focuses on working collaboratively with my clients to reach the goals they have identified for themselves.

While growing up, I was always drawn to helping others. As I got older, I realized that my greatest strength in doing this was simply my ability to listen. Becoming a therapist is a second career for me; for the first sixteen years of my professional life, I worked in international relations. While this was an exciting career, I knew that it wasn’t my passion. When I decided to transition to my second career as a therapist, I knew that I wanted to focus on helping others achieve the personal goals they had set forth for themselves. I believe in the ethos of “helping others help themselves”; as a therapist, this is still my greatest strength as well as the cornerstone that has shaped my practice today.

Every client that I meet is an individual with their own set of treatment goals, challenges that they wish to address, and strengths that they possess. My approach to working with my clients is to always consider these individual factors during their treatment course. I offer an integrative approach to various types of therapies that are uniquely mixed together to assist each client in meeting them where they are as well as helping them build on their strengths and effectively work towards their treatment goals. I often find that giving assignments between sessions is a good bridge to keep the treatment on track. At this time, my practice is entirely remote-based through teletherapy.

As with any profession, the learning process is never-ending; in my opinion, this is a strength. I consider myself a lifelong student and embrace any chance to continue building my skills and competencies and become the best therapist that I may be to my clients. I am currently in supervision with an experienced peer therapist where we continually review my cases and discuss how my treatment can improve, take on a different perspective, and evolve. In addition, I attend my own personal therapy to continue to work on myself and grow as a person. Finally, I regularly attend trainings on various topics in the field to expand my core competencies.

I strongly believe that therapy is a client-driven endeavor; my approach is to assist the client in achieving their self-identified treatment goals and to never impose my own agenda on them. In addition, I believe that therapy is a two-way investment; we are taught early on in social work school that we “should never be working harder than the client in treatment.” I believe that clients who are equally as motivated, dedicated, and willing to put in the hard work as I am towards change in their lives will gain the most out of their therapeutic experience. I am here to walk alongside them in their therapeutic journey.

I received my Master of Social Work from New York University. I have an undergraduate degree from American University in international relationships and development and have spent a significant amount of time overseas. I also have a master's degree in international relations from Fordham University. Time overseas working and studying in this field for approximately ten years has lent me a well-rounded cultural perspective of working with others with many different religious backgrounds, economic backgrounds, and experiences that are not always the same as that of the "American Experience." This certainly influences client's attitudes towards gender roles and identity, sex, how religion influences social relationships, and different perspectives on family life to just name a few things.