Daniel "Dan" Bjierke, LMFT

Daniel "Dan" Bjierke is a California-based licensed marriage and family therapist with 32 years of experience. He focuses on helping people who are navigating LGBT concerns, relationship struggles, grief, and self-esteem challenges. He offers a calm, straightforward presence and aims to support clients as they take small steps toward change.

Dan believes people bring strengths and knowledge about their own lives. He listens closely and helps clients build on what already works. Sessions are practical and goal-oriented, with time set aside to practice new ways of thinking and acting.

His approach blends cognitive behavioral ideas with client-centered and solution-focused methods. That means helping people notice unhelpful thought patterns, clarifying what they want to change, and trying manageable experiments between sessions. The work is collaborative and paced to each person's needs.

Dan has worked across many life challenges for three decades, including body image, caregiving stress, cancer and hospice-related concerns, fatherhood and men's issues, and workplace stress. He also supports people dealing with sexuality, polyamory or non-monogamous relationships, HIV/AIDS, and seasonal mood shifts.

Sessions can include coaching-style conversations about motivation and life purpose as well as therapy for grief and loss. He aims to create a space where people can speak plainly, test new behaviors, and move toward clearer goals.

How these approaches work online

Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and understanding the person's experience. The therapist offers empathy and reflection to help people clarify what matters to them and to feel supported while they explore change.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, helps people notice thoughts and behaviors that get in the way of feeling better. It breaks issues into concrete parts, sets clear goals, and tries small experiments to test new ways of thinking and acting - useful for anxiety, mood shifts, and self-esteem work.

Solution-focused therapy looks for what is already working and builds on those strengths. Sessions are goal-directed and often move quickly toward practical steps the person can take between appointments.

Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their needs, goals, and preferences. That choice can shift over time as progress is made.

Online therapy offers flexibility in how people meet. Video calls are good for face-to-face conversation, phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited, live chat fits brief check-ins, and text-based messaging helps sustain ongoing support. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to keep working on goals between sessions.