About Paula
Dr. Paula Alvarez offers calm, practical help for people feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, or life transitions. She writes plainly and listens closely, helping clients name problems and try small, doable steps toward relief.
Dr. Alvarez has 35 years of clinical experience and holds the LCSW credential. She blends client-centered care with structured tools to match a person’s pace and preferences.
That can mean working on unhelpful thoughts with cognitive behavioral techniques, practicing acceptance and valued action with ACT, or learning emotion skills drawn from dialectical behavior therapy.
How Paula works
Sessions can include brief homework or reading when that fits a person’s goals. Her background includes long-term work in both locked and outpatient mental health settings. That experience informs practical strategies for managing anger, trauma-related symptoms, addictions, and mood disorders such as bipolar disorder.
She also supports concerns about grief, caregiving stress, life purpose, and challenges related to sexual orientation. Dr. Alvarez has worked in environments serving diverse cultural and linguistic needs and has facilitated group work in Spanish and English.
She holds licenses as a clinical social worker in California, Illinois, and Missouri, and brings experience with older adult issues and end-of-life counseling. In sessions she focuses on clear goals and collaborative planning. People who prefer a mix of listening, skills training, and short exercises may find her style a good match.
She also offers coaching-style work for career or life-change questions.
Paula lists 11 ways of working on the entry:
What Paula works with
The areas below are the ones Paula 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
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 35 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Missouri |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Approaches that translate to online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on noticing difficult thoughts and choosing actions that match your values. It can help with anxiety, depression, and making changes during life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and behavior and offers practical exercises to shift unhelpful patterns, useful for anxiety, mood disorders, and some trauma symptoms. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches specific skills for managing intense emotions and improving interpersonal effectiveness, which is helpful for anger and emotional dysregulation.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will listen to your goals and preferences and then suggest methods that fit your needs. You can try different techniques over time and shape the plan based on what helps you make steady progress.
Online formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and screen-sharing for worksheets. Phone sessions can be a good option when video isn’t practical or bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging support shorter check-ins, ongoing coaching, or written reflections between sessions. These options give flexibility for scheduling, shorter or longer contacts, and different ways to practice skills outside sessions.
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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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