Kristen Buongiorno, LCSW

Kristen Buongiorno is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) based in New Jersey who focuses on practical, skills-based therapy. She centers work on how thoughts affect behavior and uses tools people can try between sessions. Her style is direct but compassionate, helping clients face difficult topics while keeping sessions straightforward and useful.

Kristen draws on 14 years of clinical experience supporting people with anxiety, depression, stress, trauma and abuse, and addiction. She also helps with relationship and intimacy concerns, grief, body image and eating issues, and life transitions like career change or medical challenges. Veterans issues and caregiver stress are among her additional focus areas.

Her approach blends Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with client-centered techniques, dialectical behavior strategies, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing. In practice this means identifying unhelpful thoughts, testing them with real-life experiments, and building practical coping skills. Mindfulness exercises and brief behavioral steps are often used to steady emotions and build momentum.

Sessions are collaborative - the client’s goals guide the work. Kristen emphasizes safety and will develop safety plans when needed. She also supports people dealing with complex topics such as abandonment, adoption and foster care history, kink and alternative sexual culture, and issues tied to guilt, shame, or infidelity.

Therapy is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Kristen works in English and practices from New Jersey as an LCSW.

How CBT, DBT, and Mindfulness Work Online

Kristen commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify unhelpful thoughts and test new behavior in everyday life; online sessions let people try these experiments and reflect on results with guidance. Client-Centered Therapy is also part of her approach, which means she listens first and shapes the work around each person’s goals and experience. Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills and mindfulness techniques are used to manage strong emotions and build coping routines.

Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the process. Kristen works collaboratively to decide what helps most, adapting methods as goals and needs change. Clients and therapist together set priorities, try strategies, and track progress in ways that feel manageable.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video works well for deeper skill practice and conversation, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat or text messaging can fit quick check-ins or brief coaching, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options offer flexibility to fit therapy into busy days while keeping the focus on practical change.