About Deborah
Deborah Gleason is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who helps people manage anxiety, stress, grief, identity concerns, and relationship pain. She offers a calm presence and practical steps for someone feeling overwhelmed or stuck. Her work is direct and compassionate, aimed at creating room for small changes that add up over time.
She emphasizes listening to both thoughts and bodily sensations, noticing how emotions show up in day-to-day life.
Background and approach
Sessions include straightforward conversation alongside practices for grounding, mindfulness, and increased body awareness. Deborah encourages clients to slow down and build skills they can use between meetings. Her approach is collaborative and nonjudgmental.
She helps people name patterns, try new responses, and apply simple tools for regulation and stress reduction. When needed, she brings narrative ideas and cognitive strategies to clarify unhelpful thinking. Deborah draws on almost a decade of clinical experience in community and residential settings.
She has supported people through trauma, identity-related issues, addiction concerns, and major life changes. Her background includes work with adolescents in group home settings where she focused on emotional awareness and self-worth. Sessions also make space for spiritual meaning when that matters to the person in therapy.
The emphasis is on practical, doable steps that fit daily life. People who want a steady, kind guide while learning concrete skills may find her approach helpful.
How Deborah Uses Evidence-Based Approaches Online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people clarify what matters to them and take small, values-driven steps despite difficult thoughts or feelings. It is useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors to reduce distress and improve daily functioning. It often helps with anxiety, depression, and sleep problems. Client-Centered Therapy centers the person’s own goals and experience, offering a supportive, nonjudgmental space to explore feelings and build self-trust.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Deborah will collaborate with each person to see which ideas and practices fit best. She may combine elements from different approaches based on needs, goals, and personal preferences so the plan feels practical and manageable.
If you are considering online therapy, confirm the current session options before booking since formats are not listed in the original profile. Online sessions can make it easier to fit meetings into a busy day, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and remove travel time. Many people find that learning grounding and mindfulness exercises remotely translates well into everyday routines. Licensed professionals can adapt ACT, CBT, and client-centered methods to an online setting so the focus stays on steady progress and usable skills.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 9 years
- Licensed
- Alabama, Illinois
- Languages
- English
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