About Valerie
Valerie Johnson-Cardoso is a licensed mental health counselor with 30 years of experience. She focuses on helping people who are stressed, anxious, grieving, recovering from addiction, or coping with life changes. Valerie offers steady, practical support and aims to create a calm, nonjudgmental space where clients can speak openly.
She draws on long experience in schools, residential mental health, and substance abuse settings. Valerie spent 16 years teaching students with learning differences, autism, and emotional challenges while running a independent practice in the evenings and weekends.
Background and approach
That mix of classroom and clinical work shaped a straightforward, problem-solving style. Valerie uses several approaches to tailor care to each person. She blends Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to clarify values and take action, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to track thoughts and behavior, and client-centered listening to make people feel heard.
She adapts methods to real life rather than following a single formula. Clients can expect practical tools for managing anger, panic, self-criticism, and relationship struggles. Valerie helps people practice coping skills step by step and notice small changes that add up.
She also brings experience with faith transitions and religious trauma concerns when that is relevant to a person’s story. Valerie works from Florida as a Florida LMHC and sees people in English. She accepts international clients and offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging.
The aim is steady, collaborative work focused on building trust and reducing daily suffering.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Valerie uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people clarify what matters to them and take small actions toward those values, even when thoughts and feelings are difficult. This approach is useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions. She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to spot unhelpful thought patterns and change behaviors that keep problems going, which helps with panic, depression, and anger. Client-centered work is part of every session so people feel heard and understood before skills are practiced.Choosing the right method is a shared process. Valerie begins by asking about your goals, what has worked before, and what feels practical for your life. Together you try approaches and adjust them based on how they fit your needs and preferences, so treatment stays flexible and collaborative.
Online therapy offers practical benefits for people with busy or changing schedules. Video calls let you meet face to face from different locations. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or when you prefer not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging provide quick check-ins, moment-to-moment coaching, or shorter sessions that fit a break at work. These options make it easier to practice new skills between meetings and keep therapy consistent over time.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- 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 conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- 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
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Hypnotherapy
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English
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