About Catherine
Dr. Catherine Alvarez, Ph.D., is a licensed mental health counselor who focuses on practical, evidence-informed approaches to anxiety, stress, and related concerns. She draws on methods like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people manage difficult feelings and regain daily functioning.
Her work is straightforward and rooted in real-life steps people can use between sessions. She brings 17 years of clinical experience in Florida to her practice.
Background and approach
That experience includes helping people cope with depression, trauma and abuse, grief, and addiction. She also supports people facing relationship strain, anger, parenting stress, and sleep or eating difficulties. In session she uses client-centered conversation to understand what matters most to each person.
She also uses skills-based strategies from CBT and emotion regulation tools from DBT when those fit the goals. Attachment-based ideas inform work around intimacy, abandonment, and family patterns. Her approach is collaborative and paced to the individual.
People can expect to set clear, achievable goals and practice concrete skills between sessions. Progress is measured in small, steady steps rather than dramatic fixes. Outside core specialties she brings attention to challenges such as ADHD, chronic illness and pain, caregiver stress, body image, and career or life transitions.
Her style is direct but compassionate, aimed at helping people rebuild routines, manage symptoms, and strengthen coping over time.
Approach-driven care you can access online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people clarify values and take small actions that matter, even when unwanted thoughts or feelings are present. It is useful for anxiety, stress, and when life changes make it hard to move forward. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches practical skills to identify and change unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors, which can reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and sleep or eating problems. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship patterns influence current intimacy and communication difficulties and can help people notice and shift those patterns.Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. The therapist partners with each person to choose methods that match their goals, preferences, and day-to-day life. Sessions start with understanding immediate concerns and then try options that fit the person, adjusting over time based on what helps.
Online therapy offers flexibility and easier access to consistent care. Video calls let people meet face-to-face when a full session is helpful. Phone sessions can be shorter check-ins or a lower-bandwidth option. Live chat and text-based messaging support quick check-ins, homework feedback, and skill practice between appointments. These options make it simpler to fit therapy around work, family, or medical needs and to keep momentum when progress happens in small steps.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English
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