About Gretchen
Gretchen Van Blair is a licensed mental health counselor who focuses on helping people manage anxiety, stress, addictions, and eating concerns. She offers calm, direct support for challenges with self-esteem and for members of the LGBT community. Gretchen works with individuals who are trying to build more self-love and healthier ways of relating to themselves.
Her approach is practical and person-centered. She helps people untangle issues around attachment, abandonment, and body image with plain talk and steady guidance.
How Gretchen works
Sessions often include ways to improve communication and cope with caregiver strain or chronic illness. Gretchen also assists people facing guilt, shame, or isolation after difficult life events. She helps clients explore forgiveness, set boundaries, and find clearer life purpose.
For those recovering from trauma or navigating pregnancy and childbirth challenges, she offers focused support and pacing to match each person’s needs. With six years of experience as an LMHC - Licensed Mental Health Counselor - in Washington, she draws on practical methods that have been shown to help.
Her work aims to make progress understandable and manageable, one step at a time. Sessions are designed to help people build skills they can use between meetings. Gretchen emphasizes concrete strategies for stress reduction, healthier self-talk, and rebuilding a sense of connection and meaning in daily life.
What Gretchen works with
The areas below are the ones Gretchen selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Eating disorders
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Narcissism
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LMHC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 6 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Washington |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How evidence-based approaches translate to online care
Many clients benefit from structured, evidence-based techniques that focus on thoughts, behaviors, and relationships. Cognitive approaches help identify and change unhelpful thinking patterns that feed anxiety and low self-esteem. These methods teach practical skills for day-to-day stress management and for shifting negative self-talk.Behavioral and skill-based strategies target habits related to addictions, eating concerns, and avoidance. These approaches break problems into manageable steps, build healthier routines, and use small experiments to test new ways of coping. Attachment-focused work supports people in understanding patterns of relating and improving communication and trust with others.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about needs, goals, and preferences and recommend techniques that fit. Together they shape a plan and adjust it over time so methods match what is actually helping.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let people work face to face when more engagement is helpful. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a quieter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging make short check-ins, homework support, or brief updates possible between longer sessions. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and maintain steady progress.
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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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