About Kathleen
Kathleen Cates-Richardson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with 16 years of experience. She practices in Iowa and offers support for anxiety, depression, grief, addictions, relationship struggles, trauma and intimacy-related concerns. She focuses on creating a calm, open space where people can talk about hard feelings without judgment.
Sessions are collaborative; she listens first and helps people decide what to work on next. The aim is practical change and clearer choices, not jargon or quick fixes.
Background and approach
Her approach uses several methods to match a person’s needs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps identify and change unhelpful thinking patterns. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes empathy and the client’s own pace.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy adds skills for emotion regulation when feelings feel overwhelming. Kathleen has worked across a range of concerns beyond core issues, including abandonment, adoption and foster care matters, caregiver stress, body image, and substance use. She also supports people facing communication problems, divorce or separation, and coping after disasters.
Sessions are offered in English and she accepts clients internationally. She encourages anyone feeling stuck to reach out and explore whether talking together might help. Small steps can lead to meaningful shifts, and she helps people build those steps into everyday life.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Client-Centered Therapy centers the person in the room and emphasizes listening, warmth, and working at the client's pace; it helps people feel heard and better understand their own choices. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions interact and teaches practical steps to change patterns that contribute to anxiety, depression, or sleep problems. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) provides concrete skills for managing strong emotions and improving relationships when feelings become overwhelming.Deciding which approach to use is part of the work together. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and what tends to help in early sessions. This collaborative conversation shapes which methods are emphasized and how sessions are structured over time.
Online therapy options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful for full conversation and visual cues, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging suits quick check-ins or times when typing feels simpler. These formats offer flexibility to fit therapy into busy lives and different routines, while keeping the focus on practical tools and steady progress.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 16 years
- Licensed
- Iowa, Arizona
- Languages
- English
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