Lura Salm

After graduating with my MSW specializing in working with immigrants and refugees, I have worked for 6 years with adults and adolescents in private practice. I have provided mental health services to a diverse community in Queens, New York since then. I specialize in individual therapy, as well as parenting, co-parenting, and couples therapy sessions. My treatment focus is on coping with major life events and changes, anxiety, depression, and trauma. I have a breadth of experience working with adults and adolescents to process past experiences or current sources of stress which are affecting their ability to feel present and settled in school, at home, or socially. I have also spent years providing services for individuals and families looking to work through questions and experiences related to sexual orientation and gender identity, and I am proud to support our LGBTQ+ community.

My passion and purpose in working with someone in therapy is to empower them to develop an understanding of their needs and take action toward meeting them. With a strong will to progress, and a support system in place, I see all people as capable of any personal development they should aspire to.

Some of us have been given the message from our family or our culture that seeking help makes one weak or selfish, and that one should struggle through whatever they are facing alone. I am here to assure those I work with that asking for help and working toward bettering oneself are among the most courageous endeavors one can ever engage in. The challenge of uncovering what might be holding us back in life can be significant, and I devote my time and energy to providing a warm, open, and nonjudgmental environment for one to feel safe and free to do so.

My style is to develop a holistic, individualized treatment method which approaches the challenges at hand from an anti-oppressive and accepting lens. I utilize parts-based approaches such as Internal Family Systems as well as techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in order to form an integrative approach.

In our first session, we will focus on understanding what brings you to therapy, and begin the discussion about goals you would like to move toward together. I will ask about what is currently present in your life and affecting you, as well as factors from the past that may be having an impact. We will also make space to start getting to know each other and establish how we can work collaboratively toward the outcomes you are expecting from therapy. The main goal will be to set a foundation in the soil of the work to make our time together as fruitful as possible.

If this sounds right to you, please reach out and make an appointment. Together we can create goals and further cultivate your courage to enact them.