Paula Patterson, LCSW

Paula Patterson is a licensed clinical social worker with 20 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and addictions. She works with individuals who are facing relationship strain, grief, parenting challenges, or the fallout from trauma and abuse. Her style is straightforward and compassionate, aimed at making therapy understandable and usable in day-to-day life.

Paula pays attention to repetitive patterns like obsessions, compulsions, and self-harm behaviors. She also helps people process sexual assault and navigate personality-related struggles. Seasonal mood shifts, bipolar challenges, and compassion fatigue are other areas she addresses in therapy.

Her work blends practical tools and emotional understanding. Paula uses approaches such as cognitive behavioral methods and acceptance and commitment ideas to help people change unhelpful thinking and focus on meaningful action. She also draws on attachment-based and client-centered ways of relating to support clearer communication and stronger emotional connection.

Sessions focus on building coping skills, reducing distressing symptoms, and setting realistic goals. Paula helps people learn techniques for managing anger, improving self-esteem, and handling life changes like career transitions. She encourages small, steady steps rather than big, sudden overhauls.

Paula practices in North Carolina and holds the LCSW credential, the licensed clinical social worker designation. Therapy is conducted in English. People interested in starting complete a short online matching questionnaire and schedule sessions based on the therapist's availability.

Approaches that translate to online work

Many of Paula's methods focus on skills and awareness that can be practiced between sessions. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings, choose values that matter to them, and take small actions that match those values. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches practical strategies to identify and reframe unhelpful thoughts and test new behaviors to reduce anxiety and depressive patterns.

Paula also uses attachment-based and client-centered ways of relating, which emphasize understanding how past relationships affect present connections and building a trusting, respectful therapeutic relationship. These approaches help with relationship concerns, intimacy issues, and emotional regulation.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that fit their goals, preferences, and the problems they want to address. That plan can change as progress is made or needs shift.

Confirm current session options before booking since this profile does not specify formats. Online work can make therapy easier to fit into busy lives by reducing travel time, allowing shorter check-ins when needed, and offering a way to continue therapy during life transitions. Talk with the therapist about scheduling and the practical details that will help sessions fit into day-to-day routines.