Kimberley VanHaitsma, LMSW

Kimberley VanHaitsma uses cognitive behavioral therapy as a core approach to help people manage anxiety, stress, and depression. She is a Licensed Master Social Worker and brings a calm, practical style to sessions. Her tone is straightforward and focused on small, concrete steps that make life easier.

She has worked in healthcare and crisis settings and has ten years of clinical experience. That background shaped how she responds in urgent moments and how she helps clients build safety plans when needed. She also spent years supervising limited license social workers as they moved toward full licensure.

Kim focuses on everyday struggles that wear people down. She helps with compassion fatigue, boundary setting, caregiver stress, and the fatigue that comes with chronic illness. She also supports people coping with grief, relationship strain, career change, and life transitions.

Her sessions combine CBT tools with client-centered listening, elements of dialectical behavior therapy, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing. Expect practical skill-building - thought records, behavior experiments, and emotion regulation skills - alongside time to talk through problems and set doable goals.

Kim offers several formats for sessions including video calls, phone, live chat, and text messaging. She works from Michigan and conducts sessions in English. Starting is straightforward: complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule according to availability.

Using CBT and Skills-Based Work Online

Kim blends cognitive behavioral work with client-centered care and DBT skills to help people manage mood and behavior. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with real-world experiments to reduce anxiety and depressive patterns. Client-centered work emphasizes listening and shaping goals around what matters most to the person. Dialectical behavior therapy adds concrete emotion regulation and distress-tolerance skills for intense moments.

Choosing the best approach is collaborative. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, try strategies, and adjust methods based on what helps. That joint process means techniques are tailored to daily life, like building routines, managing caregiver strain, or coping with chronic illness symptoms.

Online therapy offers several practical advantages. Video calls let people use visual cues for skills coaching and role play. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is low or for quick check-ins. Live chat and text messaging work well for short updates, homework support, and between-session coaching. These options aim to make it simpler to practice skills and fit therapy into a busy life.