About Dana
Dana Lapsley is a California licensed clinical social worker who helps people facing stress, anxiety, and relationship strain. She focuses on building clearer communication and stronger self-esteem. Dana aims to make the first step feel doable instead of overwhelming.
Dana uses straightforward conversation tailored to each person’s needs. She listens for patterns that keep problems repeating, then helps clients try small, practical changes. Sessions tend to focus on improving daily coping, decision making, and restoring a sense of purpose.
How Dana works
Her work includes support for parenting-related stress such as adoption and foster care concerns, and for people coping with family conflict. She also helps with body image, codependency, commitment issues, and feelings of emptiness or isolation. People bring concerns about obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, jealousy, guilt and shame, or trouble managing control and communication problems.
Dana helps unpack these issues into manageable steps so clients can try new ways of relating and reacting. With four years of clinical experience, Dana emphasizes respect, sensitivity, and compassionate support. She builds a plan that fits each person’s life and goals.
The aim is to empower people to make durable changes they can maintain outside sessions.
What Dana works with
The areas below are the ones Dana selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Avoidant personality
- Body image
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 4 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | California |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Evidence-Based Techniques and Online Care
Dana draws on evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on practical change and clearer thinking. One approach helps identify unhelpful behavior patterns and replaces them with small, testable changes to improve daily functioning. This method is useful for stress, anxiety, and habit-driven problems like compulsions. Another approach emphasizes communication skills and boundary work to reduce conflict and increase connection. It helps people handle jealousy, codependency, commitment issues, and family problems by building specific ways to speak up and set limits. These techniques are aimed at concrete behavior shifts rather than abstract insight. Deciding which approach to use is a collaborative process. Dana will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and how problems show up day to day. Together they tailor a plan and adjust it as progress is made so the work feels relevant and manageable. Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is good for a fuller conversational experience, phone can work when bandwidth is limited, and live chat or text messaging suit quick check-ins or people who prefer writing. These options make scheduling easier and let therapy fit into busy lives.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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