About LaDonna
LaDonna Barner is a licensed marriage and family therapist who focuses on relationship and parenting concerns. She helps people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, grief, depression, or challenges with self-esteem. Her style is straightforward and supportive for folks taking the first step toward help.
She creates an open environment where clients can talk about difficult feelings without judgment. Sessions aim to increase understanding, improve communication, and build practical skills for day-to-day life.
Background and approach
LaDonna listens for patterns in relationships and behavior and works with each person to set clear goals. Her background includes six years of professional experience working with people facing trauma, intimacy-related issues, and major life changes. She also supports clients dealing with ADHD, bipolar disorder, eating concerns, anger, and chronic stress.
When relevant, she addresses attachment, abandonment, and blended family challenges. LaDonna uses a mix of evidence-informed approaches to fit each person’s needs. She draws on client-centered methods to follow the client’s lead, cognitive behavioral tools to shift unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, and emotionally focused work to deepen connection in close relationships.
The Gottman Method and existential ideas also shape her perspective when appropriate. She practices in Mississippi and conducts sessions in English. If you want practical steps, calm conversation, and a partner in change, LaDonna helps people explore options and find what works for them.
Approach and Online Therapy Options
LaDonna uses client-centered therapy to follow each person's lead, prioritizing what matters most to the client and building goals together. This approach helps when someone needs an empathetic listener who will reflect back feelings and clarify priorities.She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors. CBT is helpful for anxiety, stress, low mood, and managing day-to-day reactions. Emotionally-focused ideas are used when relationship patterns and connection are the main concerns, helping people identify emotions and change interaction cycles.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. LaDonna will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what feels comfortable, then collaborate on which methods to try. She checks in and adjusts the approach as progress is made so the plan stays practical and relevant.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging for flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions work well when internet bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text can be useful for quick updates, brief coaching, or staying connected between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule and to continue work from different locations.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 6 years
- Licensed
- Mississippi
- Languages
- English
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