About Dara
Dara Charlton is a licensed clinical social worker with 20 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and grief. She works with adults on relationship concerns, intimacy-related issues, parenting strains, and coping with life changes. Her approach is calm and practical, aimed at making everyday life feel more manageable.
Dara adapts her methods to each person's needs. She draws on client-centered work to build trust and DBT and CBT techniques to teach coping skills for intense emotions.
How Dara works
Emotionally-focused ideas guide her when people want help with connection and communication. Sessions typically focus on problem-solving and skill building. She helps people notice unhelpful patterns, try small behavior changes, and practice new ways of relating.
Mindfulness techniques are used to reduce reactivity and improve sleep and stress management. Dara also addresses concerns such as body image, addiction-related issues, chronic illness and pain, caregiver stress, and compassion fatigue. She offers support around abandonment, attachment issues, and sexual concerns including BDSM and kink in a nonjudgmental way.
Clients can expect straightforward goals and practical homework between sessions when helpful. Dara believes steady, small steps create durable change. She practices from Oregon and uses a style that balances empathy with clear, actionable guidance.
Dara lists 9 ways of working on the entry:
What Dara works with
The areas below are the ones Dara selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Oregon |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches for online support
Client-centered therapy focuses on building a trusting relationship where the person leads the conversation and feels heard. It helps when someone needs empathy, reflection, and a compassionate space to make sense of difficult feelings.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, breaks down problems into thoughts, feelings, and actions. It teaches practical steps and small behavior changes to reduce anxiety, manage depression, improve sleep, and address unhelpful patterns.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, offers skills for managing intense emotions, improving distress tolerance, and strengthening communication. It can be useful for people who want concrete tools to handle overwhelm and regulate reactions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about goals and preferences and then try methods that fit those needs. This collaborative process means techniques can be adjusted over time based on what helps most.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video is useful for a fuller conversation and visual cues, phone can work when bandwidth is limited, and messaging allows brief check-ins or ongoing written support. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or travel schedules while keeping treatment consistent and accessible.
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.
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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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