About Valerie
Valerie Johnson-Cardoso is a licensed mental health counselor with 30 years of experience. She helps people who feel overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, addiction, grief, or major life changes. She also supports those dealing with intimacy, body image, parenting strain, ADHD, and identity questions.
Valerie aims to build trust so clients can talk openly without judgment. Valerie worked in Florida and Pennsylvania in residential mental health and substance abuse settings. She spent 16 years as a school teacher for students with learning differences, emotional challenges, autism, and developmental delay.
How Valerie works
While teaching she ran a independent practice evenings and weekends and also provided care in homes and day treatment programs. Her practice recognizes that no single approach fits everyone. Valerie uses practical tools from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Emotionally-Focused Therapy, and client-centered methods.
Sessions focus on small, doable changes clients can use between meetings. She has experience helping people navigate faith transitions and what some call religious trauma syndrome. She has worked with adults across a wide age range and with varied life circumstances, including caregiving stress and serious medical concerns.
Valerie emphasizes teamwork in therapy. She helps clients notice self-critical patterns and develop kinder responses to themselves. The work is paced to match each person’s comfort, aiming for clearer choices and calmer days.
Valerie lists 14 ways of working on the entry:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Hypnotherapy
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
What Valerie works with
The areas below are the ones Valerie selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LMHC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 30 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Florida |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches you can use online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people clarify what matters to them and take committed action toward those values. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions by teaching practical exercises to live in line with chosen goals.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. It breaks problems into manageable steps and offers strategies people can practice between sessions for issues like depression, anxiety, and eating concerns.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and better interpersonal communication. It is often used when strong emotions, impulsive behavior, or relationship challenges get in the way of daily life.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Valerie will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. That way the plan is tailored and practical rather than one-size-fits-all.
Online sessions give flexibility to fit therapy into busy lives. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be used when bandwidth is low, and live chat or text-based messaging offers shorter check-ins or ongoing support between meetings. These options make it easier to keep regular contact and practice new skills in everyday settings.
Start online instead of waiting
Our partner service asks a few questions about what you are looking for and matches you with a therapist for sessions from home.
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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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