Laura Fritzsche LPC-MHSP

I integrate evidence-based practice (especially ERP, CBT, and ACT) with an interpersonal style that is collaborative and relational. You may be experiencing “stuckness” in your life, feeling caught in thought loops that have left you overwhelmed, anxious, in pain, hopeless. Yet, something brought you here – somewhere within you is an action tendency toward healing, growth, and connection. Together through therapy, we can tap into that healing propensity already within you, reframe and integrate painful experiences into your narrative, reconstruct rigid ways of engaging with the world, and create space for movement toward what matters most to you.

In addition to OCD and related disorders, I also work with PTSD and complex trauma, mood disorders (e.g., depression), grief, and other anxiety disorders (e.g., social anxiety, health anxiety/hypochondriasis, panic, agoraphobia, specific phobia, generalized anxiety). I often work with clients presenting with multiple co-occurring issues and neurodivergence (especially ADHD). Regardless of diagnoses, treatment structure is co-constructed with the client and tailored based on their current needs, motivation, values, and personal goals. I strive to make therapy a safe, collaborative space where we can address and adjust our pacing and focus as needed throughout the treatment process.

My training in OCD specifically began in academic research at Vanderbilt over 15 years ago and later extended into several years working at Rogers Behavioral Health. I learned so much from the experts in the field who trained me and from the many patients I worked with who had a wide variety of OCD presentations (it’s difficult to quantify the exact number of OCD cases I’ve worked with, but it’s definitely in the hundreds!) Now, almost all clients I work with present with some form of anxiety, and about 70% of my typical caseload is comprised of OCD cases.

I work with clients with a diverse range of identities with regard to race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, religion, gender, sexuality, neurodiversity, and abilities. My approach emphasizes humility, sensitivity, openness, curiosity, and affirmation for all humans and their intersecting identities. A large percentage of clients on my caseload are part of the LGBTQIA++ community specifically, and many are neurodivergent.

Clients and I often discuss ways that these identities may show up in their lives in general and/or in the therapeutic relationship given the systems of privilege and power to which we are all subject.

My graduate program training had an emphasis on developing awareness and sensitivity to human development in the context of that human’s lived experience and intersecting identities. This applies not only to the client but also to the therapist themselves; therapists who do not remain humble and curious about what they unconsciously bring into session pose a huge risk to harming their clients. As such, a social justice mindset oriented toward dismantling systems of oppression is not only complementary to the therapeutic profession; it’s essential. I strive to stay active in this ongoing facet of my personal and professional development.