Paula Patterson, LCSW

Paula Patterson is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, and difficult life changes. She draws on twenty years of experience to guide people through relationship problems, trauma, addiction concerns, and issues around self-esteem and parenting. Paula aims to make the first steps feel manageable and clear.

Her sessions focus on practical skills and steady progress. She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice and change unhelpful thoughts and habits. She also integrates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Attachment-Based ideas to address values, emotional connection, and patterns that repeat in relationships.

Paula often works with people dealing with obsessional thinking, compulsions, and symptoms of OCD. She supports survivors of sexual assault and those who struggle with self-harm, bipolar mood shifts, seasonal affective disorder, and grief. She also helps people facing career strain, compassion fatigue, and challenges tied to identity and intimacy.

Her style is calm and direct. Paula listens without judgment and helps people build coping tools they can use between sessions. She values clear goals and small steps that add up over time.

Paula practices in North Carolina and conducts sessions in English. She uses a mix of therapeutic methods to match each persons needs and circumstances, and she works collaboratively to choose approaches that feel right for the individual.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Options

Paula commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in her online practice. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people identify unhelpful thoughts and change behaviors that keep problems going. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and compulsive patterns. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy focuses on values and small actions that build a meaningful life while teaching ways to accept difficult feelings rather than fight them.

She also draws on Attachment-Based ideas to look at how early relationship patterns affect current connections. That approach helps when people want to understand repeated conflicts, intimacy issues, or why certain reactions keep returning in relationships. Paula will work with each person to choose the approaches that best match their goals and comfort level in a collaborative way.

Online therapy with Paula is offered using video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is useful for full sessions and nonverbal cues, phone works well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can be a shorter check-in, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options give flexibility to fit therapy into busy lives and to keep momentum between appointments.