About Cara
Cara Kelley is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) who brings eight years of clinical experience to her practice in Iowa. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, life transitions, relationship and family concerns, career decisions, and ADHD. Cara speaks English and works with adults using a practical, person-centered style.
Cara believes counseling should feel like a supportive conversation where clients can speak openly. She emphasizes building on a person's existing strengths.
How Cara works
Sessions often include straightforward strategies for coping, problem solving, and clarifying goals. Her background includes both individual and group work and experience connected to the military community. That experience informs her attention to life stages, midlife concerns, and issues tied to service.
Cara draws from approaches that help people change unhelpful thoughts and habits, find motivation, and set achievable goals. Clients can expect a collaborative tone in sessions. Cara helps people notice patterns, try small changes, and track what works.
She also attends to whole-person wellbeing - mental, physical, and spiritual elements that affect everyday life. Cara aims to help clients build confidence, move past barriers, and reconnect with a sense of purpose. Her hope for each person is practical progress rather than perfection, with therapy paced to the client's needs and goals.
Cara lists 4 ways of working on the entry:
What Cara works with
The areas below are the ones Cara selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Career difficulties
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Relationship issues
- Somatization
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LMHC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 8 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Iowa |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Cara’s approaches work online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and responding to the person in front of the therapist. It helps people feel heard, clarify values, and build on strengths to handle stress, relationship issues, and life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts influence behavior and mood, and uses practical homework and experiments to reduce anxiety, manage obsessive or compulsive patterns, and improve coping.Choosing the right approach happens together. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, try approaches that fit those goals, and adjust over time. This collaborative process helps pick methods that feel useful and realistic for daily life.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different needs. Video is useful for full conversations and visual cues. Phone can be simpler when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for tracking progress, quick check-ins, and when writing out thoughts helps clarify them. These options make scheduling easier and allow therapy to fit around work, family, or other commitments.
Start online instead of waiting
Our partner service asks a few questions about what you are looking for and matches you with a therapist for sessions from home.
Book with CaraWe will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.
Common questions
What concerns does Cara commonly address
What is her therapy style like
How much clinical experience does she have
What credentials and location information apply
Are sessions available in other languages or countries
Which session formats are offered
How are fees and payment handled
What steps are needed to begin therapy
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.
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you. Entries are not assessed or endorsed by this directory.
Other entries for stress, anxiety
Supportive LCSW helping people build strength and clarity
Practical, trauma-aware therapy for everyday life
Practical, relational therapy for life transitions