Meet Dr. Larry Porter

I've spent 35 years in the room with people at their most vulnerable — and their most capable.

After completing my doctoral training at Texas Tech University and building a career as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I spent the heart of my professional life at LifeGate Christian Counseling in Sioux Falls. There, I worked directly with individuals, men, couples, and families — supervising clinicians and walking alongside people through depression, betrayal, broken marriages, grief, and the quiet weight of feeling stuck. Over three decades, I learned what breaks people. More importantly, I learned what brings them back.

In addition to my clinical work, I've had the privilege of teaching at Capella University — training and supervising incoming therapists in graduate-level clinical work. That teaching role has deepened my own understanding of what genuine, lasting change requires.

At some point, I started noticing a pattern. The clients who made the most lasting, meaningful changes weren't just the ones who understood their past — though understanding matters. They were the ones who had someone calling them forward into what was possible. Someone who held a vision of their best self when they couldn't see it themselves. Someone who asked hard questions and didn't let them off the hook. That's the moment I understood coaching.

Coaching is different from therapy by design. Therapy looks back to understand — an essential and deeply valuable service I respect. Coaching looks forward to build. No diagnoses. No clinical models. No processing the same wound for years. Just you, your goals, and a guide who has spent 35 years learning what genuine, lasting change actually requires. The two approaches serve different needs — and for many people, the forward-focused posture of coaching is exactly what unlocks movement.

I started Anchored Coaching because I believe men — and the couples and families connected to them — are underserved by traditional models. Most men don't want to spend years processing. They want clarity. A plan. Someone willing to tell them the truth without flinching, and then hold them accountable to their own stated values. They want to commit to growth, not just talk about it.

My faith is central to who I am, and it shapes how I coach. I am unapologetically grounded in Christian principles — not as a requirement for working with me, but as the foundation I stand on. The name Anchored Coaching comes directly from Hebrews 6:19: the image of hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. That's what I want every client to walk away with — not just a plan or a framework, but something firm beneath them when the storms come. If your faith matters to you, we bring it in. If it doesn't, I will still meet you exactly where you are. What you won't find here is spiritual window dressing. This is real work, and it goes deep.

My counseling practice is state-licensed in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, and Florida. Coaching, however, has no geographic limits — I work virtually with coaching clients anywhere in the world (English-speaking). If you're a man who senses that something's off but can't quite name it, I've sat with that. If you're a couple who has drifted and wonders if you can find your way back, I've seen what's possible on the other side of that work. If you want to show up differently — for your family, your faith, and yourself — that's exactly where I've spent my career.