Lindsay McClernan, LCSW

Lindsay McClernan is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) practicing in Wisconsin. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, trauma, and major life changes. Her style aims to be warm and straightforward so people can start making small shifts quickly.

She uses practical tools from cognitive behavioral therapy, paired with attachment-based and client-centered ideas. Sessions often include learning new ways to respond to difficult thoughts, practicing emotion regulation, and improving communication. Lindsay offers clear steps clients can try between meetings.

Lindsay has 11 years of experience working with concerns such as depression, addiction, grief, parenting strain, and compassion fatigue. She also addresses issues like abandonment, adoption and foster care, attachment struggles, and autism-related challenges. Her background includes helping people who face prejudice or multicultural stressors.

Her approach is trauma-informed and focused on the person in front of her. She aims to create a space where people can name painful experiences and build skills to move forward. Treatment plans are shaped around each person's goals rather than a one-size-fits-all method.

People who choose Lindsay typically want practical strategies alongside emotional support. She helps clients practice new behaviors, improve relationships, and reconnect with purpose. Sessions are offered through video calls, phone, live chat, or text messaging to fit different needs.

Using evidence-based approaches in online therapy

CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and behavior and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful patterns; it is often used for anxiety, depression, stress, and coping with life changes. Attachment-based therapy focuses on how early relationships shape current connection patterns and helps people build safer, more trusting relationships through new ways of relating. Client-centered therapy emphasizes the person's own goals and values, with the therapist offering empathy and nonjudgmental support so clients can find their own solutions.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Lindsay will discuss what feels most useful and tailor methods to the client's needs, goals, and preferences. That collaborative decision-making helps make sessions more relevant and workable for each person.

Online therapy options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexible ways to meet. Video is useful for a full session with face-to-face interaction, phone calls work well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can be a shorter check-in, and messaging lets clients share brief updates or questions between sessions. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and different life situations.