About Cortney
Cortney Merritt is a clinician who helps people through hard moments like depression, anxiety, stress, and grief. She uses a collaborative, person-centered style to support practical change and greater self-compassion. Cortney holds an MD and is a licensed clinical social worker with an LCSW-C.
Over five years of clinical experience shape how she supports people facing life changes. She focuses on building coping skills, improving self-esteem, and handling feelings of isolation and shame.
How Cortney works
Sessions often involve talking through immediate concerns and trying small, doable strategies between meetings. Cortney pays attention to communication patterns and offers ways to express needs more clearly. She also helps people work through guilt, impulsivity, and questions about sexuality and identity.
When trauma influences daily life, she provides steady, practical support to process difficult memories and reactions. Many clients come seeking clarity about life purpose or wanting to strengthen self-love. Cortney aims to translate what matters to each person into concrete steps.
She frames progress as a series of manageable goals rather than one big fix. Her approach includes cultural humility and respect for each person's background. Cortney partners with people to tailor sessions to their goals and pace.
Getting started means taking one step at a time toward change.
What Cortney works with
The areas below are the ones Cortney selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
Training and background
| Registers | MD, LCSW-C |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 5 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Maryland |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Evidence-based approaches and online care
Many evidence-based therapeutic techniques focus on changing day-to-day patterns and building coping skills. One common approach helps people identify unhelpful thoughts and try more balanced ways of thinking, which can reduce worry and low mood and make it easier to act on goals. Another approach emphasizes learning and practicing new behaviors and routines to manage stress, impulsivity, and difficult emotions, using small experiments between sessions to build confidence.Finding the right style is part of therapy. The therapist will work together with each person to decide which techniques fit their needs, goals, and preferences. Sessions are collaborative and adjusted over time based on what proves most helpful.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls let people work face-to-face when a visual connection helps, while phone sessions use less bandwidth and can fit into a work break. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, processing feelings between sessions, or for people who prefer typing to speaking. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent around busy schedules.
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Common questions
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What kind of experience does the therapist have?
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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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