About Deborah
Deborah Richardson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with 38 years of experience. She focuses on helping people who are dealing with trauma, grief, depression, anxiety, stress, and life changes. Deborah believes starting therapy is often a brave step and meets people with straightforward honesty and respect.
Her work centers on building a trustworthy relationship where people can talk openly about difficult experiences. She listens for strengths and patterns, then helps clients try new ways of reacting and relating.
How Deborah works
Sessions aim to make everyday choices feel more manageable and meaningful. Deborah uses a mix of practical approaches to match each person's needs. She draws on Client-Centered Therapy to keep conversations focused on the person's goals.
She also uses Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills to teach emotion regulation and coping tools. For trauma, she incorporates Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing as one of the options to address painful memories. Motivational Interviewing and Solution-Focused Therapy are used to help people clarify goals and take steps forward.
These methods are applied in simple, concrete ways rather than technical jargon. Many people seek her help for relationship strain, parenting stress, caregiver burnout, mood disorders, postpartum depression, and issues tied to family history. She also supports people facing addictions, career uncertainty, and questions about life purpose.
Deborah practices in Virginia and conducts sessions in English.
Deborah lists 7 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.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Stress, Anxiety
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 38 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Virginia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches suited to online work
Deborah uses Client-Centered Therapy to keep sessions focused on each person's goals and priorities. That approach centers on listening, reflecting, and helping people clarify what they want to change. It can be useful for depression, anxiety, and life-direction questions.She also uses Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which teaches practical skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT skills help when stress, intense emotions, or relationship conflict make everyday life harder. For trauma, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is offered as a method to address distressing memories in a structured way.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist discusses options and tailors techniques to a person’s goals, symptoms, and comfort with different methods. Clients and therapist choose steps together and adjust as needed to find what helps most.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video sessions let people use visual cues and deeper conversation, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging can fit short check-ins or times when typing feels simpler. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or busy schedules.
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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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