Laura L. Sparkman, M.S., LPC, NCC

Biography

Laura Sparkman is a Licensed Professional Counselor and owner of Sparkman Counseling & Educational Consulting, PLLC. She received her Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Education with a Minor in Spanish in 2005. She later earned a Master of Counseling from Southern Methodist University in 2012. Prior to developing her counseling and consulting practice, Laura spent the last 15 years working across the medical, educational, and non-profit sectors with all demographics. She has served various roles as a teacher, learning specialist, guidance counselor and administrative / faculty adviser in both private and public schools in the greater Dallas area.

Mission Statement

Just as a diabetic requires insulin and a person with vision impairment needs glasses, sometimes we benefit from emotional support to boost optimal brain health and function. Counseling is a safe, collaborative opportunity for you to take personal, self-care time assessing, processing and redefining your life. Learn to build skills to improve communication, social relationships, goal setting, decision making, time management, organization, work / life balance, self-esteem and any other issues preventing you from being the most authentic, successful, fulfilled version of yourself. Sparkman Counseling & Educational Consulting, PLLC offers counseling, coaching and consulting services.

Laura’s passion and specialty is working with the learning different population who often struggle with co-morbid social-emotional challenges. As a hybrid professional, she blends the worlds of education & therapy offering her clients a myriad of practical strategies and tools. From pre-school to young adult, she can screen for identification, perform observations at home or school and provide referrals for psycho-educational testing. From there, she can interpret results and guide intervention including remediation / therapy (speech-language, occupational, dyslexia, adhd, social skills, executive function training, academic coaching etc.) With a signed parental consent release, she often partners with the schools to put approved classroom accommodations in place for the student. If applying for college, she can go a step further and assist with advocating for standardized testing accommodations on the SAT and ACT. Lastly, she can steer families to evaluate / identify appropriate educational environments for their children as academic, behavioral, and emotional concerns are addressed simultaneously. As a key fits a lock, each child must be mission matched for a school and vice versa.

Additionally, Laura enjoys empowering parents & the larger family system to foster healing, strength, perseverance, and optimism through challenging times. She encourages her clients (usually women / mothers) on their journey to better manage stress, anxiety, and depression. She uses a combination of therapy orientations tailored to the individual including Cognitive Behavioral, Solution Focused and Family Systems Therapy to instill hope by reframing maladaptive, distorted thought patterns and foster positive coping skills.