About Paula
Dr. Paula Ehrmantraut helps people facing stress, anxiety, addictions, relationship strain, and depression. She draws on 17 years of clinical experience and uses straightforward methods to help people take practical steps forward.
She meets people where they are and focuses on small, doable changes. Sessions are aimed at finding what’s working and building on it. That often starts with mapping daily routines and spotting one or two shifts that reduce overwhelm.
Background and approach
Her work blends client-centered listening with cognitive behavioral techniques and skills from dialectical behavior therapy. That mix lets clients talk through feelings and also practice new responses between sessions. Paula also uses emotionally-focused ideas when relationship patterns are part of the concern.
She has supported people with a wide range of concerns beyond the main specialties, including adoption and foster care issues, attachment challenges, aging and geriatric matters, autism and Asperger syndrome, chronic pain and illness, body image, and codependency. She can also address substance misuse and domestic violence-related stress in individual sessions.
Paula is licensed in South Dakota as an LCPC, LPC, and LPC-MH. She offers sessions in English and works with international clients as well. Her approach aims to be practical, compassionate, and aimed at real-life results.
Therapeutic approaches and online care that fit your life
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and understanding your experience. In practice this means the therapist follows your lead, reflects what’s important to you, and helps you name goals that matter in daily life.Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, breaks problems down into thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It offers concrete exercises to test unhelpful thinking and to build new habits that reduce anxiety and improve mood.
Dialectical behavior therapy, DBT, teaches skills for managing strong emotions and improving relationships. It emphasizes practical tools like emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and clear communication strategies.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to pick methods that match their needs, goals, and preferences. That plan can change as progress is made and new priorities emerge.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules and needs. Video calls let people use visual cues for relationship or emotional work. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to use a camera. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for brief check-ins, skill practice, or when fitting therapy into a busy day.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Body image
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed
- Montana, Washington, South Dakota, Utah
- Languages
- English
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