About Kristen
Kristen Hughes is a licensed clinical social worker with 29 years of experience helping people who feel overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship struggles. She focuses on building a calm, open space where people can say what they need to say. Kristen aims to make the first steps easier for those who are nervous about starting therapy.
In sessions she listens closely and works at the client’s pace.
How Kristen works
She uses clear, practical tools to help manage day-to-day stress and anxiety. For trauma and abuse concerns she takes a steady, measured approach that balances safety with progress. Kristen draws on several approaches to match the person in front of her.
She uses client-centered methods to follow what matters most to each person. She incorporates cognitive behavioral techniques to spot and shift unhelpful thinking patterns. She also brings skills from dialectical behavior approaches to teach emotion regulation and better communication.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is part of her toolkit for people processing traumatic memories. Motivational interviewing helps when someone needs to find the energy to make changes. Kristen has worked across many life challenges beyond the primary concerns listed.
These include body image, caregiving stress, chronic illness and disability, attachment and abandonment worries, adoption and foster care topics, blended family dynamics, and aging issues. She practices in Arizona and conducts sessions in English.
Kristen lists 7 ways of working on the entry:
What Kristen works with
The areas below are the ones Kristen selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 29 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Arizona |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Online approaches that meet you where you are
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and following what matters most to the person. The therapist reflects back what she hears and helps people clarify goals and next steps. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts and behaviors affect mood and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful patterns. Dialectical behavior therapy adds tools for emotion regulation and better communication when feelings feel overwhelming.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Kristen will talk with each person about their goals and preferences and suggest strategies that fit. Together they decide what to try first and adjust as needed so the plan matches the client’s life and pace.
Online sessions make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be a simpler option when bandwidth is limited, live chat works for shorter check-ins, and text-based messaging lets people share thoughts between meetings. These formats offer flexibility so therapy can continue despite travel, work hours, or other commitments.
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Common questions
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How do I get started with therapy?
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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