Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C

Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, author, educator, consultant, and international professional speaker with more than 25 years of experience across mental health, substance-use treatment, foster care, family court, developmental-disability services, higher education, and organizational leadership.

She is the founder and lead therapist of Selah Wellness & Therapeutic Services, LLC, a virtual specialty practice supporting therapists, leaders, professionals, individuals, and couples. She is also CEO of SJL Professional Services, Inc., where she provides coaching, consultation, professional development, and organizational training related to ethics, mental health, wellness, leadership, communication, conflict resolution, workplace culture, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Known professionally as a “Therapist for Therapists” and the SelfCarePreneur, Dr. Lawrence has built her career around supporting people whose work requires them to care for, guide, supervise, educate, or make consequential decisions affecting others. Her approach recognizes that professional competence cannot be separated from emotional wellness, ethical self-awareness, clear boundaries, and the ability to respond responsibly under pressure.

Professional Background of Sharon J. Lawrence

Sharon J. Lawrence earned her Master of Social Work from the University at Buffalo and her Doctor of Education in Leadership from the American College of Education. She also holds professional preparation in Christian ministries and workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her credentials include Certified Financial Social Worker and Board Certified–TeleMental Health Provider, along with advanced preparation in clinical supervision, couples assessment, coaching, and employee-assistance services.

Dr. Lawrence serves as an adjunct faculty member at Bowie State University, where the university’s current faculty directory lists her among its sociology adjunct professors. Her professional biography also identifies teaching responsibilities at Prince George’s Community College. Through this academic work, she helps prepare emerging professionals to understand human behavior, mental health, ethical responsibility, communication, and effective service delivery.

Her professional experience allows her to connect classroom knowledge with the everyday realities of clinical practice, supervision, workplace leadership, and organizational decision-making. She teaches professionals to consider not only what an ethical code says, but also how power, stress, culture, competing responsibilities, and personal reactions influence the way that code is applied.

Clinical Ethics and Trauma-Informed Practice

Ethics and trauma-informed care are central to the work of Sharon J. Lawrence. Her teaching emphasizes that trauma-informed practice is not simply a set of calming techniques or a label placed on a clinical program. It is an ethical framework that affects assessment, communication, informed consent, treatment planning, documentation, professional boundaries, and the way organizations respond to vulnerability.

SAMHSA identifies safety, trustworthiness, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, voice, choice, and attention to cultural, historical, and gender considerations as guiding principles of a trauma-informed approach. These principles must be reflected continuously in organizational systems rather than appearing only in individual therapy sessions.

Dr. Lawrence helps clinicians recognize how ordinary professional practices may either reduce or unintentionally reinforce trauma responses. An unexplained policy, abrupt change, dismissive tone, unnecessary use of authority, confusing consent process, or poorly handled boundary can affect a client’s sense of safety and control.

Trauma-responsive care does not require therapists to eliminate every source of discomfort. Ethical treatment may involve difficult conversations, accountability, limit setting, or recommendations the client does not initially welcome. The clinician’s responsibility is to communicate clearly, protect dignity, offer meaningful participation where possible, and avoid unnecessary coercion or re-traumatization.

Professionals can explore this intersection through Dr. Lawrence’s Clinical Events program, Ethical Healing Frontiers: Trauma-Informed Practice That Transforms. The training examines client autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, confidentiality, re-traumatization, culturally responsive communication, ethical decision-making, and clinician self-awareness.

Professional Boundaries and Ethical Integrity

Professional boundaries are another defining area within the education offered by Sharon J. Lawrence. Boundaries create the structure that allows therapeutic and supervisory relationships to remain safe, predictable, and focused on the needs of the person receiving services.

Boundary concerns may develop around:

• After-hours communication
• Therapist availability
• Self-disclosure
• Gifts and favors
• Fees and cancellations
• Social media contact
• Dual relationships
• Physical touch
• Session extensions
• Rescue dynamics
• Personal financial involvement
• Relationships with supervisees or employees

Not every departure from ordinary practice is automatically unethical. A clinically considered boundary crossing may occasionally benefit a client. A boundary violation, however, exploits professional power, primarily serves the clinician’s needs, compromises judgment, or creates a meaningful risk of harm.

The NASW Code of Ethics addresses conflicts of interest, privacy, confidentiality, professional competence, informed consent, technology, boundaries, and practitioner self-care. It also recognizes that social workers must remain attentive to personal distress that could interfere with professional judgment.

On December 18, 2026, Dr. Lawrence will present Holding the Line: Professional Boundaries, Ethical Integrity, and the Modern Clinician. This three-credit ethics workshop explores burnout, ethical vulnerability, boundary strain, professional impairment, self-awareness, and practical strategies for maintaining clear and compassionate limits.

Clinician Wellness as an Ethical Responsibility

Sharon J. Lawrence teaches that clinician wellness is not separate from professional ethics. Prolonged exhaustion, unresolved distress, excessive workload, isolation, and poor boundaries can affect concentration, emotional availability, documentation, risk assessment, and the ability to respond thoughtfully during difficult clinical situations.

The NASW Code of Ethics explicitly encourages social workers to engage in professional self-care and continuing development. It also treats practitioner impairment as an ethical concern when personal problems interfere with competent service.

Self-care should not be reduced to occasional leisure activities while the conditions creating exhaustion remain unchanged. Sustainable professional functioning may require:

• Realistic caseloads
• Clear communication policies
• Consultation and supervision
• Protected time away from work
• Appropriate compensation
• Peer support
• Access to personal therapy
• Organizational accountability
• Limits around unpaid emotional labor
• Recognition of cultural and systemic stressors

Through her Balance Boldly! I Matter programming, Dr. Lawrence helps professionals and organizations examine mental health, productivity, leadership, self-care, and workplace expectations together. Her consulting work is designed to help leaders create healthier systems rather than expecting employees to manage every structural problem through private coping strategies.

Financial Wellness and Financial Social Work

A distinctive aspect of the work of Sharon J. Lawrence is her preparation as a Certified Financial Social Worker. Financial distress can affect anxiety, depression, sleep, relationships, work performance, parenting, healthcare decisions, and a person’s overall sense of security.

Money concerns are not always solved through budgeting advice alone. Financial behavior may be influenced by family messages, shame, trauma, social inequality, avoidance, impulsivity, fear, limited resources, and beliefs about success or self-worth.

The Center for Financial Social Work describes Financial Social Work as a behavioral approach involving engagement, education, motivation, community, and empowerment. Its directory identifies Dr. Lawrence as a Certified Financial Social Worker whose work connects mental health, professional wellness, coaching, and financial behavior.

In clinical and coaching settings, financial wellness work may help people examine:

• Emotional responses to money
• Spending and avoidance patterns
• Financial boundaries
• Conflict between partners
• Fear of discussing debt or income
• Workplace and entrepreneurial stress
• Beliefs inherited from family or culture
• The relationship between financial insecurity and mental health

This perspective is especially relevant for therapists, business owners, and helping professionals whose financial concerns may be intensified by inconsistent income, private-practice responsibilities, student debt, or discomfort charging appropriately for their expertise.

Telehealth Ethics and Digital Practice

As a Board Certified–TeleMental Health Provider, Sharon J. Lawrence brings specialized knowledge to virtual behavioral-health practice. The Center for Credentialing & Education explains that the BC-TMH credential requires a qualifying professional license or certification, approved telemental-health education, and successful completion of the TeleMental Health Examination.

Telehealth can expand access, but it also creates responsibilities involving:

• Client identity and physical location
• Emergency contacts
• Cross-jurisdiction practice
• Informed consent
• Confidentiality and platform security
• Technology failure
• Privacy within the client’s environment
• Electronic communication
• Documentation
• Digital boundaries

Clinicians should not assume that a familiar video platform is automatically appropriate for clinical care. They must understand how information is transmitted, stored, accessed, and protected, while remaining prepared for emergencies or disconnections.

Clinical Events’ article on telehealth ethics and client privacy offers related guidance on secure practice, informed consent, emergency planning, confidentiality, documentation, and professional boundaries.

Couples, Relationships, and Communication

The practice of Sharon J. Lawrence also supports couples seeking to strengthen communication, rebuild connection, navigate conflict, and understand the patterns affecting their relationships.

She is trained as a Prepare/Enrich Facilitator and Trainer. The official Prepare/Enrich program uses assessment, guided discussion, and skill development to help couples examine communication, conflict, expectations, finances, intimacy, family relationships, and shared goals.

Relationship treatment should not assume that every conflict is simply a communication problem. Clinicians must also assess emotional safety, coercive control, interpersonal violence, substance use, financial abuse, trauma, and whether conjoint treatment is appropriate.

When couple work is clinically suitable, Dr. Lawrence’s approach helps partners move beyond blame and identify recurring patterns. Clear communication, emotional regulation, realistic expectations, personal responsibility, and respectful boundaries can support stronger relational functioning.

Clinical Supervision and Professional Development

As a board-approved clinical supervisor, Sharon J. Lawrence helps developing clinicians strengthen case conceptualization, ethical reasoning, professional identity, cultural responsiveness, documentation, boundaries, and awareness of countertransference.

Supervision should provide more than administrative approval. It creates space for clinicians to examine uncertainty, emotional reactions, treatment barriers, scope of competence, and the effect of workplace conditions on clinical judgment.

Dr. Lawrence’s experience as a psychotherapist, professor, consultant, and organizational trainer enables her to approach supervision from several perspectives. She helps clinicians consider how personal values, leadership structures, productivity expectations, financial pressure, and professional relationships can influence decisions in subtle but important ways.

Leadership, Communication, and Workplace Wellness

Through SJL Professional Services, Sharon J. Lawrence provides training and consultation for businesses, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, faith communities, entrepreneurs, and professional teams.

Her organizational programs address workplace mental health, ethical leadership, conflict resolution, communication, equity, team development, and employee well-being. The goal is not simply to help people tolerate dysfunctional systems more effectively. It is to help leaders recognize how policies, communication patterns, authority, and workplace culture affect both performance and emotional health.

Ethical leadership requires transparency, accountability, consistency, and the capacity to hear difficult feedback. Leaders must also recognize that power remains present even when they view themselves as supportive or approachable.

Dr. Lawrence’s work encourages organizations to create environments in which expectations are clear, conflict can be addressed responsibly, diverse experiences are respected, and employee wellness is treated as part of effective leadership rather than an optional benefit.

Author, Speaker, and Mental Health Educator

Sharon J. Lawrence is the author of multiple books and journals addressing healthy relationships, personal boundaries, self-care, gratitude, forgiveness, and emotional wellness. Her professional websites identify her as the author of several publications and the creator of educational programs for professionals, entrepreneurs, clinicians, and organizations.

She has contributed mental health and wellness commentary across television, radio, podcasts, conferences, and digital publications. Her public education focuses on making emotional-health concepts understandable while encouraging individuals and organizations to seek appropriate professional support when concerns extend beyond general education or coaching.

Upcoming Clinical Events With Sharon J. Lawrence

On October 3, 2026, Dr. Lawrence will present Ethical Healing Frontiers: Trauma-Informed Practice That Transforms. The live virtual workshop runs from 10:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. ET and offers three ethics CE credits. Participants will explore trauma-informed ethical principles, re-traumatization risks, culturally responsive engagement, boundary clarity, clinical self-awareness, and structured decision-making.

On December 18, 2026, she will lead Holding the Line: Professional Boundaries, Ethical Integrity, and the Modern Clinician. This three-credit ethics program examines the relationship among clinician wellness, burnout, professional boundaries, ethical vulnerability, and responsible clinical judgment.

Professionals can browse the complete Clinical Events continuing education calendar for additional programs covering ethics, trauma-informed care, professional boundaries, telehealth, clinician wellness, cultural responsiveness, supervision, and evidence-informed psychotherapy.

Learn With Sharon J. Lawrence

The professional work of Sharon J. Lawrence, EdD, LCSW-C, connects clinical social work, ethics, trauma-informed care, professional boundaries, clinician wellness, financial behavior, telehealth, relationship education, supervision, and organizational leadership.

Her teaching encourages clinicians and leaders to recognize that ethical practice is not achieved through rules alone. It also requires self-awareness, cultural humility, transparent communication, appropriate consultation, sustainable boundaries, and careful attention to the power professionals hold.

Through psychotherapy, teaching, speaking, supervision, and organizational consultation, Dr. Lawrence helps helping professionals care for others without ignoring the ethical importance of their own wellness and professional sustainability.