About Wendie
Wendie Vanderwater is a licensed clinical social worker who focuses on practical support for people feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, stress, grief, or relationship strain. She speaks plainly and aims to create a down-to-earth space where clients can sort through worries and find steps that fit their life. Wendie draws on 22 years of experience in Montana.
She combines tools from cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy with mindfulness and solution-focused ideas.
Background and approach
She works with each person to decide whether they want homework, journaling, skills practice, or mostly talk in sessions. Her approach is direct and nonjudgmental. She asks questions to discover what a client needs and adjusts methods to match those needs.
Mindfulness and simple daily activities are often part of the plan to help people reconnect with feelings and energy. Wendie helps people address a wide range of concerns, including stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, depression, self-esteem, eating issues, and relationship or intimacy-related problems. She also supports people dealing with grief, career transitions, ADHD, and compassion fatigue.
Sessions can include a mix of teaching new skills, practicing coping strategies, and setting small, achievable goals. Wendie encourages clients to keep active outside sessions - for example volunteering or joining a group - as a way to build meaning and lift mood. She aims to partner with each person so therapy fits their preferences and daily life.
Conversations in sessions lead to clear next steps that a person can try between appointments.
How Wendie uses skills-based approaches online
Wendie commonly draws on cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy in online work. CBT helps people notice unhelpful thinking and try small behavior changes to test new outcomes, which can help with anxiety, depression, and coping with life changes. DBT focuses on building emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills through practical exercises and step-by-step practice, which is useful for strong mood swings, relationship strain, or intense emotions.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Wendie will talk with a person about their goals and daily life, then recommend a mix of techniques that fit. Many people use a combination of skill teaching, mindfulness practice, and short between-session tasks to see what helps most.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make scheduling easier. Video is useful when visual cues and longer conversations help, while phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited or someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and messaging support brief check-ins, journaling prompts, or ongoing skills practice between appointments, which can make therapy more flexible around work and caregiving demands.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed
- Montana
- Languages
- English
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