About Colleen
Colleen Overholt is a licensed marriage and family therapist who helps people facing anxiety, stress, phobias, depression, trauma, and parenting challenges. She brings steady guidance and a calm presence to sessions. Colleen works with people on grief, self-esteem, relationship strains, ADHD, and coping with big life changes.
She has 26 years of experience in clinical roles such as psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, program manager, and executive director. That background includes work in independent practice, schools, clinics, and community programs.
Background and approach
Colleen draws on that variety when adapting care to each person's situation. Her style is warm and practical. She centers the person’s goals and uses structure when it helps.
Colleen encourages clients to speak up about what they need and what they hope to get from therapy. Colleen often uses cognitive behavioral techniques to identify and shift negative thinking. She also uses client-centered and mindfulness approaches to build strengths and increase self-awareness.
Elements of psychodynamic and solution-focused work can appear when exploring patterns and practical next steps. People can expect a collaborative relationship where the therapist helps set direction, offers feedback, and assigns simple tasks between sessions when useful. Colleen focuses on small, doable changes that add up over time.
She practices in California and works in English. Sessions can include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, depending on what fits a person’s needs.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and supporting the person where they are. The therapist follows the client's lead, reflects what she hears, and helps people identify their own solutions. This approach is helpful for building trust and clarifying goals in early sessions.Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, looks at thoughts, feelings, and actions and uses simple exercises to change unhelpful thinking. It works well for anxiety, phobias, mood concerns, and negative thinking patterns by breaking problems into manageable steps.
Mindfulness therapy teaches basic attention and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and increase calm. Short mindfulness exercises can be used between sessions to help with stress, sleep, and emotional regulation.
Finding the right mix of methods is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with the person about goals, try approaches, and adjust based on what helps most. That collaborative process makes it easier to fine-tune techniques to fit the person's life.
Online formats - video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging - make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule. Video is useful for face-to-face conversation and demonstrations. Phone sessions can be simpler when bandwidth or camera use is difficult. Live chat and text messaging can support brief check-ins, homework review, or ongoing encouragement between longer sessions. These options give flexibility to keep progress moving even when life is busy.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 26 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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