About Colleen
Dr. Colleen Downes helps people dealing with stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, career concerns, ADHD, relationship and family struggles, grief, trauma, and burnout. She is an LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker - with 35 years of experience based in New York.
Her tone is warm and practical, aimed at people who want straightforward support and tools. Her sessions focus on what feels most pressing to the person in front of her.
How Colleen works
She listens first, then works with clients to set clear goals. Conversations are interactive and respectful, with an emphasis on kindness and realistic steps forward. Dr.
Downes draws on several approaches while tailoring work to each person's needs. She uses client-centered methods to follow the client’s lead, mindfulness practices to build present-moment awareness, psychodynamic ideas to look at past patterns, and solution-focused techniques to try out concrete changes. These approaches are adapted depending on whether the concern is depression, grief, parenting stress, chronic illness strain, or relationship tensions.
Her background includes decades in mental health and work with caregiving, adoption and foster care contexts, learning disabilities, and chronic medical conditions. That variety informs a practical view of coping skills and life adjustments. Sessions aim to help people feel more able to manage emotions, make decisions, and handle life changes.
Dr. Downes encourages collaboration so people leave with clear steps they can try between meetings.
Colleen lists 4 ways of working on the entry:
What Colleen works with
The areas below are the ones Colleen selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Multicultural concerns
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 35 |
| 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 and Online Options for Practical Change
Client-centered work focuses on following the person's lead and building trust so goals emerge from what matters most. This approach helps when someone needs a space to sort priorities and feel heard.Mindfulness therapy brings simple practices for paying attention to the present moment. It can reduce reactivity, ease anxiety, and provide tools for managing pain or difficult feelings between sessions.
Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist collaborates with each person to choose methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences, and revisits the plan as things change.
Online sessions include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different routines. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier when you need a shorter check-in, and messaging formats work well for quick updates or on-the-go reflections. These options make it easier to schedule therapy around work, caregiving, medical appointments, or travel while still working on clear goals.
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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