Prof. Vanessa Costello, LPC

Prof. Vanessa Costello is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with ten years of clinical experience. She practices from Oklahoma and combines practical methods to help people manage stress, anxiety, and life transitions. Her style is direct and collaborative, aimed at building a steady working relationship with each person who reaches out.

She focuses on everyday problems like relationship strain, self-esteem struggles, and coping with grief. She also helps with career stress, compassion fatigue, and intimacy-related concerns. Vanessa brings a faith-informed perspective when clients want that included, alongside evidence-based approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

Vanessa has worked across a range of age groups and settings during her career, including community agencies and counseling centers. She holds an MA in Marriage and Family Therapy and maintains LPC credentials in Arizona and Texas as well as Oklahoma. That background informs a practical, skills-focused approach to therapy.

In sessions she uses straightforward exercises to shift unhelpful thinking and to build better daily routines. She also incorporates communication tools for people facing relationship or family-of-origin issues. Motivational Interviewing techniques support clients who want help finding direction or making changes.

Clients who choose her can expect clear goals, regular check-ins, and homework that fits real life. She emphasizes small, measurable steps that add up over time. The work aims to reduce distress and increase confidence in handling everyday challenges.

How these approaches work online

CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with simple behavioral experiments. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and stress by teaching practical skills to change thinking and daily routines.

The Gottman Method centers on improving communication and problem-solving between partners. It uses concrete exercises to reduce conflict, rebuild trust, and increase emotional connection for people dealing with relationship strain.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their goals and preferences. That decision can change over time as progress is made and new concerns arise.

Online therapy offers flexibility to fit sessions into busy schedules. Video calls provide face-to-face interaction for deeper conversation, while phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited or a quieter audio check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging allow short check-ins, quick skills coaching, or ongoing support between longer sessions. These options make it easier to keep consistent momentum and practice new skills in everyday life.