Penny Gifford, LPC, LCPC

Penny Gifford is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) with 30 years of experience helping adults address life stress and emotional struggles. She aims to create a calm, nonjudgmental setting where people can learn practical skills to feel more in control. Sessions focus on clear goals and steps people can use between appointments.

Her work centers on managing anxiety, depression, stress, and addictions. She also helps people dealing with grief, relationship and family strain, bipolar and ADHD challenges, and concerns about self-esteem and body image. Penny supports those facing life changes such as divorce, caregiver stress, or career shifts.

She draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Client-Centered Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing, and Solution-Focused Therapy. Those approaches are used to teach coping skills, change unhelpful thinking, and build stronger emotion regulation. Treatments are practical and skill-based rather than academic.

Penny describes her style as collaborative and direct. She works with each person to set achievable steps and then practices those skills together in sessions. The aim is steady, usable progress that fits into daily life.

Based in California, Penny meets with adults who want to reduce symptoms and build routines that support well-being. Sessions can address a broad range of issues, from trauma and abuse to sleep or eating concerns, using experience-backed methods and a problem-solving focus.

Therapeutic approaches and online care

Penny often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which helps people spot unhelpful thoughts and test new behaviors to reduce distress. CBT is useful for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and many everyday struggles.

She also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills. DBT techniques can be helpful when strong emotions or relationship conflicts interfere with daily life.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Penny will talk with each person about goals and preferences and then choose or combine methods that match those aims. This is a collaborative process where plans are adjusted as progress is made.

Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet between work, family, and other duties. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions are useful when bandwidth or camera use is limited, live chat provides a short check-in, and text-based messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to fit regular sessions into a busy routine and to practice skills when they matter most.