About Deborah
Deborah Hilyard is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over 34 years of experience practicing in Florida. She earned her graduate degree in counseling from the University of Memphis and has worked in a variety of settings, including career counseling and military family centers. Deborah focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, trauma, depression, and life transitions.
Her background includes developing transitional programs for service members leaving the military and providing mental health support for those service members and their family members.
How Deborah works
She has also completed comprehensive assessments in the foster care system and has experience supporting people affected by emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. These roles shaped her understanding of how major life changes and uncertainty affect mood and relationships. Deborah blends straightforward, practical approaches with a warm, interactive style.
Sessions emphasize respect, sensitivity, and compassion without stigmatizing labels. She tailors conversations and treatment plans to each person's situation rather than relying on one fixed method. Her work draws on client-centered principles, cognitive-behavioral ideas, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, mindfulness practices, and motivational interviewing.
That mix allows her to address symptoms like anxiety, anger, sleep or eating difficulties, grief, and challenges related to caregiving or career stress. People who connect well with Deborah tend to want collaborative support and clear steps they can try between sessions. She encourages small, manageable changes and helps identify practical coping strategies.
If someone is ready to move toward a more stable, satisfying routine, she offers steady guidance and encouragement.
Deborah lists 8 ways of working on the entry:
What Deborah works with
The areas below are the ones Deborah selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LMHC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 34 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Florida |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Deborah’s Approaches Translate to Online Care
Deborah often uses client-centered therapy, which focuses on listening closely and helping people set their own goals. That approach helps when someone needs support to make decisions, work through relationship tension, or regain a sense of control after traumatic events.She also applies cognitive behavioral therapy, a hands-on method that looks at unhelpful thoughts and patterns and teaches practical skills to change them. CBT is useful for managing anxiety, depression, anger, and sleep or eating struggles. In addition, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing offers a stepwise way to process traumatic memories when someone is ready to address them more directly.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Deborah works with each person to decide which methods fit their goals and comfort level. She tailors plans as progress unfolds and helps clients try practical tools between sessions.
Online therapy with Deborah is offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions let people use visual cues and a fuller conversation. Phone sessions can work well when bandwidth is limited or a simpler check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging offer shorter, on-the-go exchanges and written reflections that some people find easier to revisit. These options make therapy more flexible for different schedules and day-to-day routines.
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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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