About Ariel
Ariel Phelps offers a warm, client-centered approach with practical tools when life feels overwhelming. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) with six years of experience. Ariel focuses on making therapy straightforward and doable for busy people.
Ariel helps with common and painful problems like anxiety, depression, stress, grief, and low self-esteem. She also supports people navigating parenting challenges, family conflict, career worries, and major life changes.
Background and approach
Her work includes attention to relationship issues such as jealousy and infidelity and to concerns that affect identity and behavior. In sessions she blends client-centered listening with techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. That means she listens first, then offers clear strategies to change thoughts, cope with strong emotions, and build better habits.
She keeps language plain and focuses on steps clients can try between meetings. Ariel has experience addressing personality-related patterns, postpartum depression, fertility stress, and process addictions such as gambling or problematic sexual behaviors. She also supports people recovering from sexual assault and those managing self-harm urges by prioritizing safety and practical coping skills.
She works with people in North Carolina and tailors plans to each person's goals and life situation. Ariel encourages small, steady steps and helps clients track progress so change feels manageable rather than overwhelming.
Approaches that guide online care and what to expect
A client-centered approach focuses on hearing your experience and shaping sessions around what matters most to you. The therapist follows your lead, reflects what she hears, and helps set goals that fit your life.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts influence feelings and behavior. Ariel uses CBT-style techniques to help identify unhelpful thinking patterns and to practice new ways of responding to stress, anxiety, and low mood.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, teaches emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills. These strategies are useful for managing strong emotions, improving relationships, and reducing impulsive behaviors.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Ariel will discuss options with each person, try different techniques, and adjust the plan based on your goals, progress, and preferences. The therapist aims for a practical fit rather than a rigid method.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to match different needs. Video works well for in-depth conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can be simpler when bandwidth is limited or you need a flexible check-in. Live chat and text messaging offer short, frequent contact for task-focused support or between-session check-ins. These options help therapy fit into work, family, and daily life.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Family conflicts
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Anger management
- Avoidant personality
- Career difficulties
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Fertility issues
- Grief
- Infidelity
- Jealousy
- Multicultural concerns
- Personality disorders
- Postpartum depression
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Self-harm
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Stress, Anxiety
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 6 years
- Licensed
- Virginia, North Carolina
- Languages
- English