Lawrence Goncalves Jr., LICSW

Lawrence Goncalves Jr. is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) in Washington with 25 years of clinical experience. He supports people facing stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, bipolar disorder, depression, addictions, family strain, grief, sleep problems, parenting concerns, anger, low self-esteem, and life transitions. His work also covers codependency and related relationship patterns such as attachment and abandonment issues.

He began his career after earning a B.A. in Juvenile Counseling from the University of Washington and spent a decade at a community mental health clinic working with youth and families. He later completed a Master of Social Work at the University of Washington and became an LICSW. His settings have included juvenile justice, domestic violence shelters, community centers, and youth group homes.

Sessions focus on building a working relationship that helps people think and act differently about their problems. He draws on practical strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy to manage emotions and change unhelpful patterns. He also uses client-centered ideas to keep sessions focused on each person’s concerns.

For trauma and intense distress he incorporates eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, pairing it with grounding and coping skills when needed. Lawrence aims to blend approaches into simple, usable steps people can try between meetings.

He has worked with diverse ages and cultural backgrounds and has provided individual, group, and community-based services over his career. If someone wants to begin, the usual next step is a short matching questionnaire followed by scheduling a first session.

Approaches used for online work and what they do