About Valerie
Valerie Rutherford is a Licensed Independent Social Worker (LISW) based in Ohio with 18 years of clinical experience. She offers practical support for stress, anxiety, depression, and many everyday struggles. Valerie keeps things straightforward and focuses on what will help right now.
She emphasizes a warm, non-judgmental tone and works collaboratively with each person. Sessions focus on clear goals and steps you can try between meetings. Valerie uses methods that encourage noticing thoughts and building skills to manage hard moments.
Background and approach
Her work covers parenting concerns, relationship and family issues, grief, trauma and abuse, addiction, eating and body image concerns, and ADHD among other areas. She also helps with career stress, compassion fatigue, and life changes such as divorce or adoption-related concerns. Valerie adapts interventions to the situation rather than applying a single method to every problem.
Valerie draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Mindfulness approaches, Client-Centered Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing. Those approaches are used to build coping skills, increase emotional awareness, and support behavior change. Expect a mix of talking, skill practice, and goal-setting.
Her practice includes several ways to connect, including video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Sessions follow a subscription model that can be canceled at any time. Valerie practices in Ohio and works in English.
How Valerie’s Approaches Work Online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on noticing thoughts and choosing actions that align with personal values. It helps when worry, avoidance, or low motivation get in the way of living the life someone wants. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and teaches concrete strategies to change unhelpful patterns. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and stress-related problems.Finding the right approach is part of the process. Valerie works collaboratively to identify which methods seem most useful for each person. She will discuss goals, try approaches, and adjust over time so the work fits the client’s needs and preferences.
Online therapy offers practical benefits. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can be simpler when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging make it easier to check in between sessions, fit quick updates into a busy day, or use shorter, focused exchanges. Together these options provide flexibility to match different schedules and communication styles.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- 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
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 18 years
- Licensed
- Ohio
- Languages
- English
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