Catherine Wasson, LICSW, LCSW, CSW

Catherine Wasson is a licensed clinical social worker who focuses on helping people facing stress, anxiety, depression, relationship and parenting challenges. She offers a direct, down-to-earth style that aims to make hard conversations easier to start. Catherine works in Virginia and has seven years of experience as a practicing clinician. She draws on practical methods like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, client-centered listening, and solution-focused strategies to help clients notice patterns and try new ways of coping. Sessions are conversational and goal-oriented, with space to process feelings about trauma, grief, or major life changes. Catherine also brings trauma-informed care into sessions and uses EMDR and mindfulness tools when those approaches fit the persons needs. That can mean learning breathing and grounding skills, doing thought work to reduce anxiety, or using guided techniques to process difficult memories. She pays attention to real-world pressures such as work stress, caregiving, first responder strain, and relationship complexity including non-monogamous arrangements. Catherine helps people work through communication breakdowns, guilt and shame, self-esteem concerns, and career transitions. People who want a respectful, practical approach can expect collaborative planning and straightforward steps between sessions. Catherine explains options and adapts the plan over time so therapy stays useful and manageable. If someone is ready to begin, she guides them through the next steps to connect and schedule care.

How Catherine blends approaches for online care

CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with real-life experiments. It is often used for anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and everyday stress by teaching practical skills to shift thinking and behavior.

Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and respect, letting the person set the pace and priorities. This approach helps people feel heard while exploring values, relationships, and self-esteem work.

EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, uses guided processing to help people reduce the intensity of traumatic memories. When appropriate, it can be paired with mindfulness and grounding techniques to support trauma recovery.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Catherine will discuss goals, preferences, and what has or hasnt helped in the past, then recommend one or a mix of methods. This is a collaborative process so adjustments are made as progress unfolds.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let people use visual cues and face-to-face conversation, phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited or for a shorter check-in, and live chat or text-based messaging can fit into busy days or provide ongoing check-ins between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy into school, work, or family schedules while keeping focus on progress.