About Frances
Frances Merz is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) based in New Jersey with 19 years of clinical experience. She approaches counseling as a practical partnership and focuses on helping people make real changes in their lives. Her style is straightforward and collaborative, aimed at people who want clear steps and support.
Frances helps with stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, and career questions. She also supports people facing grief, trauma and abuse, sleep problems, and the ups and downs of parenting.
How Frances works
Additional areas of focus include attention difficulties, bipolar and depressive symptoms, seasonal affective disorder, social anxiety, and issues common to young adults. Her counseling blends techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Solution-Focused Therapy with other methods chosen for each person. Sessions center on practical skills, problem solving, and small achievable goals.
Frances adjusts her approach based on what a person needs and what they do well. She has experience assisting people before and after weight loss surgery and offers guidance for medical advocacy. That includes brainstorming questions for medical providers and helping people cope with ongoing health challenges.
Frances typically communicates Monday through Thursday and aims to reply to messages within 24 hours. She invites people to take an active role in their work and brings a steady, encouraging presence to sessions.
Frances lists 2 ways of working on the entry:
What Frances works with
The areas below are the ones Frances selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
Also listed
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Life purpose
- Parenting issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 19 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | New Jersey |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Approaches to change and how online therapy helps
Frances commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which helps people notice unhelpful thinking patterns and try new behaviors. CBT is useful for anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, and social anxiety because it focuses on specific skills and experiments people can practice between sessions.She also draws on Solution-Focused Therapy, which concentrates on finding small, practical solutions and building on what already works. This approach is often helpful for career decisions, coping with life changes, and short-term problem solving where people want quick, concrete steps.
Choosing the right approach is a shared process. Frances works together with each person to match methods to their goals, needs, and preferences. She may combine elements from different approaches and will check in regularly to make sure the plan is working.
Online therapy offers several practical benefits for this style of work. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues for skills practice. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth or camera use is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging provide quick check-ins, brief coaching moments, or follow-up between sessions. Together these options make scheduling more flexible and let people fit counseling into busy lives.
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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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