Gillian Van Dien, LPC

Gillian Van Dien is a licensed professional counselor with 17 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and relationship challenges. She focuses on practical steps to help people feel steadier and more capable. Gillian speaks plainly and works alongside clients to address pain from trauma, grief, and role changes in life.

She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) among other methods to help people spot unhelpful thinking and try new behaviors. Her sessions often include learning specific skills for emotion regulation, clearer communication, and coping with big life shifts. Clients can expect a warm, collaborative tone and concrete tools to use between sessions.

Gillian also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and attachment-based ideas to help people clarify values and repair patterns in close relationships. She helps people sort through issues like self-esteem, intimacy-related concerns, and eating or body-image struggles. Work may focus on small habit changes, boundary setting, or grieving what’s been lost.

Her background emphasizes steady support over time and practical problem solving. Gillian aims to help people rebuild routines, manage caregiver strain or chronic illness stress, and make decisions about career and family transitions. She explains approaches simply and encourages clients to try interventions that fit their daily life.

Sessions are offered in English from Wisconsin, and she brings a patient, straightforward style to difficult topics. The goal is clearer thinking, better coping, and a stronger sense of direction.

How therapy approaches fit into online care

Gillian uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice thinking patterns that increase worry or low mood and practice small behavior changes that shift those patterns. CBT is practical and often focuses on skills you can try between sessions to reduce symptoms and improve daily routines.

She also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which helps people clarify what matters most to them and take values-based action even when feelings are difficult. That approach can help with persistent anxiety, chronic stress, and life transitions by focusing on meaning and committed steps forward.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Gillian collaborates with each person to choose methods that match their needs, goals, and comfort level. She will suggest trials of techniques and adjust the plan as progress or new issues arise.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful for real-time conversation and exercises, phone can be a lower-bandwidth option, live chat and text support quick check-ins or brief coaching, and messaging lets people share thoughts between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or busy schedules.