Barbara Mey, LMHC

Barbara Mey is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with two decades of clinical experience. She works from Rhode Island and aims to help people build self-awareness and practical coping skills. Her style is calm and straightforward, with attention to each person’s pace and goals.

She adapts her approach to match what a person needs in the moment. Barbara uses cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness techniques, acceptance and commitment ideas, motivational interviewing, and solution-focused work when these fit the situation. Sessions are geared toward learning concrete skills for stress, anxiety, mood concerns, and day-to-day challenges.

Her background includes work in substance use treatment and many years in community mental health. That experience brought a wide exposure to mood and anxiety disorders, trauma, addiction, and long-term mental health conditions. She has supported people coping with low self-esteem, relationship and family struggles, grief, and major life transitions.

In sessions she emphasizes a direct and caring relationship. Conversations move between noticing patterns, trying new coping strategies, and setting small achievable steps. She also helps people address codependency, caregiving stress, chronic health challenges, and aging-related concerns.

People who prefer a practical, skills-focused approach often find this style useful. The sessions are collaborative and paced to each person’s needs, with a focus on real-world changes rather than long lectures or vague theories.

Therapeutic approaches and online care

Barbara uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help people identify unhelpful thoughts and try new behavior patterns that reduce distress and improve daily functioning. Cognitive behavioral work is useful for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and trouble with motivation. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy focuses on helping people notice what matters to them and take small committed steps despite difficult thoughts or feelings; it can be helpful for chronic stress, grief, and ongoing life changes. Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple attention and breathing exercises to reduce reactivity and increase moment-to-moment awareness, often supporting stress management and coping with strong emotions.

Finding the right mix of approaches is a collaborative process. She will talk with each person about goals and preferences, try methods that fit, and adjust plans based on what helps most. The aim is to match tools to life needs rather than use a single rigid method.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful for full sessions that mirror face-to-face work, phone can be an option when bandwidth is limited, live chat or text messaging works well for brief check-ins or when a written record of ideas is helpful. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caregiving, or mobility limits while keeping a steady course toward goals.