Sharmen Rutherford, LPC-MHSP, LPC

Sharmen Rutherford is a Licensed Professional Counselor with 16 years of clinical experience. She uses practical, evidence-informed approaches to help people manage stress, anxiety, addictions, depression, and eating concerns. Sharmen aims to offer steady support and clear tools during hard seasons.

Sharmen blends Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with acceptance-based and client-centered work. She helps people notice unhelpful thinking patterns, test new behaviors, and accept difficult feelings while moving toward what matters to them. Mindfulness and skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) are used when clients need help regulating emotions and coping in the moment.

Her background includes long-term work with trauma, grief, and co-occurring substance use and mood challenges. That experience shapes how she plans treatment and how she responds to crises and setbacks. Sessions focus on practical steps clients can try between meetings.

Sharmen holds the credential LPC-MHSP and is also licensed as an LPC. She practices in Alabama and draws on 16 years of work with adults facing a range of life stresses, including work strain, relationship struggles, and major life changes. She values steady progress over quick fixes.

People who choose her describe wanting a therapist who listens, teaches skills, and offers plain guidance. Her approach centers on collaboration - setting goals together and checking what helps. She encourages small changes that add up over time.

How therapy approaches translate online

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people notice and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. Online CBT sessions typically include setting clear goals, practicing new skills, and reviewing progress between meetings. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy encourages values-based action and learning to live with difficult feelings while moving toward meaningful goals. ACT online can help with anxiety, depression, and life transitions by combining exercises and real-life experiments. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening, empathy, and building a trusting relationship so clients feel heard and supported.

Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. The therapist collaborates with each person to choose techniques that fit their goals, preferences, and day-to-day life. Together they try methods, track what helps, and adjust plans as needed so the approach evolves with the client's needs.

Online formats available include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video lets people work through material with visual cues, phone can be a simpler check-in with less bandwidth, live chat and messaging allow short updates or ongoing support between sessions. These options make therapy more flexible and easier to fit into a busy schedule, commuting routine, or work break.