Rita Ham, LMHP

Rita Ham is a Licensed Mental Health Practitioner with 40 years of experience in counseling. She built her career in community substance use treatment and has spent decades supporting people facing mental health and addiction challenges. Rita now provides outpatient services in Nebraska and focuses her work with adults.

She uses practical tools to help people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma. Rita often draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, attachment-based ideas, and dialectical behavior techniques to tailor a plan to each person. Sessions emphasize life skills alongside symptom-focused strategies.

Rita describes her style as warm and interactive. She aims to build trust so hard topics can be discussed honestly and change can take place. She invites input from a client’s support network when the client agrees and when that involvement may aid progress.

Goals are set together at the start of work. Those goals guide the choices of techniques and exercises used between sessions. Rita balances compassionate listening with respectful challenge to help people move toward identified changes.

Her background includes residential treatment, group facilitation, and long-term outpatient care in community programs. Rita encourages people who are ready to move from where they are now toward where they want to be to take the next step and reach out for a conversation.

Therapeutic approaches and how they work online

Rita uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help people identify unhelpful thinking and change behaviors that keep problems going. CBT sessions tend to include short exercises, practical homework, and step-by-step skill building for issues like anxiety, depression, and mood regulation. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and then commit to actions that match their values. ACT can be useful when someone wants to reduce avoidance and live with more purpose.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Rita will work with each person to pick or blend methods based on goals, preferences, and the problems in focus. That shared decision helps ensure techniques feel relevant and doable between sessions.

Online options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video lets people use visual cues for in-depth work, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging are useful for brief check-ins or ongoing skill practice. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and to continue work even when coming to an office would be difficult.