About Barbara
Barbara Castro is a licensed clinical social worker with 26 years of practice in New York. She helps people facing stress, anxiety, relationship strain, grief, parenting challenges, depression, self-esteem struggles, bipolar disorder, and ADHD. Her approach centers on respect, sensitivity, and practical support.
She aims to create clear goals and steady progress in sessions. Barbara draws on decades of clinical experience to tailor care to each person. She combines client-centered conversation with active strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy.
How Barbara works
When emotion regulation or intense reactions get in the way, she draws on techniques from dialectical behavior therapy to teach skills that calm and focus. Sessions are collaborative and goal-focused. Barbara listens first, then works with clients to set realistic steps they can try between meetings.
She emphasizes building coping skills, improving communication, and reducing overwhelming thoughts and behaviors. Her additional focus areas include abandonment, caregiver stress, chronic illness and pain, codependency, communication and control issues, divorce and separation, emptiness, family problems, fatherhood issues, fertility concerns, forgiveness, guilt and shame, and infidelity. Those topics are woven into treatment plans when they are part of a person's story.
Barbara uses straightforward language and practical tools. She supports people as they learn new ways to manage symptoms and rebuild enjoyment in life. For those ready to take the next step, she offers structured sessions that aim for measurable change and steadier daily functioning.
Barbara lists 3 ways of working on the entry:
What Barbara works with
The areas below are the ones Barbara selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 26 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | New York |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Approaches that guide online care
Client-centered therapy emphasizes listening and following the person's goals. The therapist creates space for people to tell their story and helps shape treatment around what matters most to them.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings, and actions. It uses practical exercises and experiments to reduce anxiety, depressive thinking, and unhelpful behavior patterns.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, teaches concrete skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and clearer communication. Those skills are useful when strong emotions or impulsive reactions interfere with daily life.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. That choice can change as progress is made and new challenges emerge.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging so people can pick what fits their routine. Video lets for face-to-face conversation, phone can be a simpler check-in, chat can work for shorter exchanges, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy days and to keep continuity when schedules change.
Start online instead of waiting
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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