Meet Laura Ward Woelfel EdD LPC-S

Laura Ward Woelfel is a native Austinite. She graduated in 1993 from the University of Texas at Austin in Child Development. She received a Masters of Arts in Human Services from St. Edward’s University in 1995. She has been a Licensed Professional Counselor since 1996, with an addition to her license as a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor in 2017. She recently completed all coursework for a Doctorate in Education. Sadly, as she began her Capstone project, COVID caused her to shut down her project in the school she was working with.

Laura was misdiagnosed all her life as being mildly dyslexic or mildly ADD. It was not until her senior year in college that she had a roommate with Irlen Filters and found out about Irlen Syndrome. Laura went from a C student as an undergrad to an A+ student in graduate school with using her Irlen Filters. Laura was trained as an Irlen Screener in 1995 by Patricia J. Johnson, PhD. Laura has always integrated the Irlen process in her private practice as a counselor since 1996. In 2007, Laura was trained by Carol F. Zuccone, EdD as an Irlen Diagnostician where she was mentored by Dr. Zuccone for ten years. Laura currently owns her own Irlen Clinic and regularly trains educators, medical professionals, occupational therapists and speech therapists to be Certified Irlen Screeners. Laura has a passion to help students’ and their families with learning disabilities through advocacy, counseling and testing.

Being born into an Air Force family, Laura is also very passionate in helping Veterans and families of Veterans through the Irlen Method and counseling services. Laura served several years as a Military and Family Life Counselor and is married to a Purple Heart Army Veteran of the Iraq War. Laura continues to connect with several military chaplains and enjoys volunteering for Veteran projects.

Laura has an extensive history with working with children and families in therapy. She takes an integrative counseling approach to therapy in which her response to the client is specific to the client’s needs and can change within and across sessions. This allows for the incorporation of different theoretical approaches as may be needed for the specific client. Within an integrative counseling approach, she may use a series of cognitive behavior methods to bring awareness to the client on how the client’s thoughts and behaviors are interconnected. In approaching a client’s issues through an integrated development model (IDM) she can provide structure or “scaffolding” to incorporate new knowledge and skills to advance new learning/awareness for the client.

When Laura is not working, she is usually playing with her cat, two pugs and her 26 year old Cockatoo.