Born and raised in Kentucky, after spending my graduate training in the Northeast, I was ready to return to the warmer weather and sunshine of the South.

Due to this desire, I completed my APA accredited pre-doctoral internship at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC and completed a post-doc at Friendly City Psychology in Harrisonburg, VA.

I opened Lawson Psychotherapy in Harrisonburg in early 2024 and am excited to relocate my business to Richmond, VA this summer. I am continually grateful to the clients who have entrusted me with their care. Therapy is deep, vulnerable, and hard work, and I am honored to be part of this journey with my clients.

I continue to grow and hone my therapeutic approach by participating in advanced training. My PhD program focused on psychodynamic, phenomenological, and critical psychological approaches to understanding human development and suffering. This means, I take what happens in your early development very seriously, alongside exploring the ways societal structures and systems contribute to your experiences in the world.

I’ve completed a certificate in Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy through the Institute for Clinical Social Work, a psychodynamic graduate institute in Chicago, under the direction of Dr. Carla Leone, Dr. Arthur Nielsen, and Dr. Karen Bloomberg. I also continue to study with the Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology (TRISP) Foundation in New York, NY. I am always seeking continuing education as a life-long learner, and as someone who is passionate about providing meaningful and effective psychotherapy.

My approach

I believe being deeply understood, in the context of a safe and collaborative therapeutic relationship, is the catalyst for healing and transformation. In our work together, what often are considered symptoms are viewed as important messages about one’s lived experiences and psychological needs. We will work together to understand your distress, and the deeper meaning underlying that distress. My focus in therapy is on understanding the root cause of your suffering, rather than focusing on treating symptoms alone.

My orientation to clinical work is grounded in psychodynamic, humanistic, existential, and phenomenological approaches to human suffering. I see our early experiences as largely influential and formative of our later adult experiences. With this in mind, much of my work draws on attachment theory, and understanding how early attachment relationships shape and inform how we relate with others in adulthood. I also take seriously how experiences of oppression contribute to distress and suffering. I actively integrate a focus on various aspects of identity (i.e. gender, sexual orientation, ability, race, class, socioeconomic status) and how those aspects shape and inform your experience in the world. As a psychodynamic psychologist drawing upon self-psychology, I focus on how unmet psychological needs may contribute to your experience of suffering.

I provide both individual and couples therapy. In working with couples, I integrate psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy, and Sue Johnson’s Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples. Using these approaches, I help couples identify, examine, and change patterns they find themselves stuck in, alongside understanding the softer and more vulnerable emotions present in couples’ distress. We also examine family of origin contributors to couples’ distress, and unconscious dynamics at play in patterns of interaction.

My areas of expertise include working with:

Individuals who wish to examine family of origin concerns
Individuals who have experienced religious trauma
Members of the LGBTQIA+ community
Trans* folks exploring gender identity and transition
Women’s issues and experiences
Individuals processing and recovering from traumatic experience
First generation college students and the transition to college and graduate school
Neurodiverse couples

Monica Lawson, PhD.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, VA

PhD Clinical Psychology, Duquesne University

MA Clinical Psychology, Saint Michael's College

BA Psychology and Writing, Rhetoric, and Communication, Transylvania University