Lawrence "Larry" Westenberg
Practical, strengths-based therapy with deep clinical experience
About Lawrence
Lawrence "Larry" Westenberg brings more than four decades of clinical experience to his work as an LCSW, helping people identify strengths and make purposeful change without relying on diagnostic labels.
Background and approach
He favors a strengths- and solutions-oriented model that emphasizes clients' existing resources and practical strategies rather than spending sessions focused primarily on symptom checklists. Larry's background includes early work on a state hospital back ward and later roles across inpatient, outpatient, partial hospitalization, and crisis intervention settings.
His practice addresses a broad range of concerns, including stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, addictions, mood disorders, relationship and intimacy issues, ADHD, and career and life-purpose questions. He also works with topics such as autism and Asperger syndrome, BDSM and kink communities, caregiver stress, grief and end-of-life counseling, and communication and family-of-origin difficulties.
Larry is a published author in areas related to belief change and Ericksonian hypnosis and integrates clinical tools like client-centered therapy, CBT, existential approaches, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness into tailored care. Based in Illinois, he offers flexible session formats and focuses on helping each person develop practical, individualized steps toward the goals they define for themselves.
Therapeutic Approaches for Online Care
Client-centered therapy focuses on creating a collaborative, respectful relationship in which the therapist listens closely and supports clients as they identify their own goals and solutions; this approach is helpful for people seeking empathy, clarity, and personal growth. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a structured method that explores the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and teaches practical skills to reduce anxiety, manage mood, and change unhelpful patterns. Existential therapy invites exploration of meaning, values, and personal responsibility and can be useful for those wrestling with life purpose, emptiness, or major transitions.
Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process, and the therapist works collaboratively with each person to choose or blend methods that match their needs, goals, and preferences. Sessions adapt over time as priorities shift and new insights emerge.
Online work is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility in how people engage in therapy. These formats make it easier to fit sessions into busy schedules, continue work during life transitions, and access consistent support from a licensed professional without travel, while still allowing for focused, skill-based and exploratory work.
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 42 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English