About Risa
Risa Mendelson uses a client-focused, practical approach to help people manage everyday struggles. She brings six years of experience as a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and centers sessions on what each person needs right now. Her style is straightforward and collaborative.
Risa aims to make therapy feel doable and relevant to daily life. Risa blends Client-Centered Therapy with cognitive and mindfulness-based tools. She helps people sort through stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, and mood concerns like depression and bipolar disorder.
How Risa works
She also works with problems tied to relationships, grief, anger, and addictions. Sessions address how thoughts, habits, and present routines affect feelings and choices. Her background includes training in rehabilitation counseling and human development, plus experience supporting people who have physical challenges.
That experience informs a holistic view of mental health that connects emotional, mental, and physical factors. It also guides practical planning for daily challenges and recovery from injuries like traumatic brain injury. Risa supports people coping with major life changes, caregiver stress, chronic illness or pain, and isolation.
She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills to teach practical techniques for managing overwhelming moments. Mindfulness practices are introduced as simple ways to steady attention and reduce reactivity. In sessions she works collaboratively to set goals and try strategies that fit each person’s routine.
Meetings focus on clear steps, problem solving, and skill practice that can be used between appointments.
Risa lists 4 ways of working on the entry:
What Risa works with
The areas below are the ones Risa 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
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Isolation / loneliness
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Relationship issues
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
Training and background
| Register | LPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 6 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Michigan |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Online approaches that teach skills and calm the mind
Risa commonly draws on Client-Centered Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy during online sessions. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and understanding each person's experience so goals and plans come from the client's priorities. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at how thoughts and behaviors influence feelings and teaches clear techniques to change unhelpful patterns.Choosing the right approach is a joint process. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, try methods that fit their needs, and adjust as progress is made. This collaboration helps determine whether to emphasize skill-building, emotional processing, or mindful awareness in sessions.
Online formats available include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls allow fuller interaction and visual cues, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth or camera use is limited, live chat or messaging can work for brief check-ins or when a written exchange fits a person’s schedule. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or treatment routines while using the therapist’s clinical approaches.
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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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