About Cathy
Cathy Bottrell uses a blend of practical therapies to help people through hard life moments. She is a licensed independent clinical social worker with 23 years of experience. Cathy offers straightforward support for stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and changes that feel overwhelming.
She draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, client-centered work, and mindfulness practices. Those approaches help people notice unhelpful thoughts, make values-based choices, and build small, doable habits.
How Cathy works
Sessions focus on real-world steps rather than jargon or long lectures. Cathy has worked across many concerns over her career, including addiction, trauma and abuse, intimacy-related issues, sleep problems, parenting strain, and compassion fatigue. She also addresses relationship and family-of-origin issues, adoption and foster care matters, and caregiving stress connected to chronic illness or aging.
Her background includes supporting people facing medical challenges such as cancer and HIV/AIDS, and helping those dealing with fertility, abandonment, or feelings of emptiness. Cathy also helps with career transitions, anger, communication problems, and commitment worries. People come to sessions to process loss, manage symptoms, and learn coping tools that fit their daily life.
Cathy works with each person to set clear, achievable goals. She guides short-term strategies and longer-term skills so clients can handle both immediate stress and future challenges.
Cathy lists 4 ways of working on the entry:
What Cathy works with
The areas below are the ones Cathy selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Relationship issues
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Registers | LICSW, LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 23 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | District of Columbia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How therapeutic approaches work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. It is useful for anxiety, depression, grief, and coping with life changes by teaching present-focused awareness and committed steps. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on spotting thinking and behavior patterns that make problems worse and replacing them with practical alternatives for mood, sleep, and stress management.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their goals and preferences. That means trying techniques, checking what helps, and adjusting the plan together over time.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions let people connect face to face when schedules allow. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth or camera use is limited. Live chat and text messaging are useful for brief check-ins, coaching-style support, or when a written conversation feels easier. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into busy days and to keep momentum between visits.
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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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