About Stephen
Stephen Richardson, LCSW, LISW-CP, uses a practical, person-centered approach to help people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and phobias. He draws on evidence-based methods like cognitive and mindfulness strategies while attending to emotional and spiritual concerns. He aims to make therapy straightforward and usable in daily life.
Stephen has about ten years of clinical experience working with adults in North Carolina and South Carolina. He earned social work degrees from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Winthrop University.
Background and approach
He brings both clinical training and life experience to sessions. In sessions he focuses on skills people can apply between meetings. That includes coping tools for panic and anxiety, behavioral steps for mood and sleep, and communication practice for relationship strains.
He also addresses addiction, grief, eating and intimacy-related issues as part of a broader recovery plan. Stephen recognizes that spirituality matters for many people and makes space to talk about faith when clients want to include it. He balances those conversations with practical tools from therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
People working with him can expect a calm, straightforward style that aims for steady progress. He offers multiple online formats and will work with each person to shape goals and steps that fit their life and values.
Approach-driven care delivered online
Stephen commonly draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Client-Centered Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings, clarify what matters most, and take small steps toward those values. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes a nonjudgmental, listening stance where the person sets the pace and the therapist follows. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and testing new behaviors to reduce anxiety and improve mood.Choosing an approach is collaborative. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn't worked before. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation and skill practice. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier when a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat or text messaging can support brief coaching, between-session check-ins, or people who prefer writing. These options increase flexibility and help therapy fit into busy schedules.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- 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
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- North Carolina, South Carolina
- Languages
- English
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