Jessica Benash, LCSW

Jessica Benash is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in Wisconsin with 18 years of clinical experience. She offers a warm, interactive style and focuses on helping people who are stressed, anxious, or facing life changes. Jessica emphasizes respect and compassion in sessions and looks for practical ways to help people move forward.

She draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, client-centered methods, mindfulness, solution-focused techniques, and trauma-focused work. In practice that means helping people notice unhelpful thoughts, build on strengths, and try small steps that create change. Sessions aim to be collaborative and goal-oriented while staying grounded in the client’s day-to-day reality.

Jessica has worked across residential treatment, day treatment, and outpatient settings. She also teaches as an adjunct professor in a social work department, bringing both clinical and teaching experience to her work with clients. Her background includes supporting people with depression, anxiety, parenting concerns, and caregivers dealing with chronic illness or pain.

She has considerable experience with trauma and abuse, grief including suicide loss, ADHD, and relationship or intimacy-related issues. Additional areas of focus include anger, self-esteem, career questions, compassion fatigue, blended family challenges, and financial stress. Jessica pays attention to what clients need each week and adjusts the work to match those priorities.

Her approach centers on building a strong client-therapist relationship, finding practical strategies, and helping clients try new behaviors. Jessica aims to help people gain tools they can use between sessions to manage symptoms and pursue meaningful goals.

Approaches that guide online sessions

Jessica uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help people identify and test unhelpful thoughts and build new habits that reduce distress. CBT often helps with anxiety, depression, and managing overwhelming thoughts by breaking problems into small, doable steps.

She also uses client-centered therapy which focuses on listening, empathy, and finding strengths the client already has. This approach helps people feel heard and encourages self-directed growth during practical problem solving.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Jessica will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their goals and preferences. That way the plan can change as needs evolve and the client feels more comfortable trying different strategies.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which provide flexibility for different situations. Video is useful for a more traditional face-to-face feel, phone can work when bandwidth is limited, and messaging allows brief check-ins or ongoing support between sessions. These options make it easier to schedule therapy around work, caregiving, or medical appointments while keeping the focus on practical steps and progress.