Holly Erskine, LCSW

Holly Erskine is a licensed clinical social worker in Wisconsin who helps people manage stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and self-esteem struggles. She works with people coping with life changes and with trauma-related symptoms, including post-traumatic stress and dissociation. Holly offers steady, compassionate support and practical tools to make day-to-day life easier.

Holly brings 15 years of experience in mental health to each session. She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) alongside client-centered and trauma-focused approaches. Sessions focus on building skills to manage intense emotions, reduce symptoms, and address patterns that keep problems going.

Her style is collaborative and direct. She prioritizes a strong working relationship and works with clients to set clear, realistic goals. Early sessions usually include questions about past experiences, current struggles, and what a better life would look like.

Holly often teaches grounding, emotion regulation, and coping strategies drawn from Dialectical Behavior Therapy and mindfulness practices. She adapts methods to what fits each person’s needs and pace. Practical homework and skill practice between sessions are commonly used to help progress.

People seek Holly for help after sexual assault and abuse, family of origin issues, self-harm concerns, seasonal mood changes, and social anxiety. She also supports those dealing with guilt, shame, impulsivity, and personality or mood disorders. Her aim is to help people build a life that feels meaningful and manageable.

How these approaches work online

Holly commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and trauma-focused methods to help people change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and to process traumatic memories in manageable steps. CBT focuses on identifying thought patterns and testing them with real-life experiments to reduce anxiety and improve mood. Trauma-focused therapy breaks difficult memories into smaller parts and teaches coping skills so memories feel less overwhelming.

She also draws on client-centered and Dialectical Behavior Therapy ideas to support emotion regulation and balance acceptance with change. Client-centered work emphasizes listening, empathy, and shaping goals around what matters most to the client. DBT techniques teach practical skills for handling intense emotions, improving distress tolerance, and reducing impulsive actions. Holly will discuss these options with each person and help decide together which mix of approaches fits best for their goals and preferences.

Online therapy with her is offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier during busy days, live chat is good for quick check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing brief contact and between-session work. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a schedule and to use tools and skills in real time.