About Carla
Carla Bensie is a Licensed Professional Counselor with more than 11 years of clinical experience. She practices in West Virginia and brings steady, practical support to people facing stress, anxiety, addiction, trauma, and depression. She values clear conversation and calm guidance during hard moments.
Carla helps clients talk through life changes and relationship struggles that affect daily functioning. She listens without judgment and works with each person to build realistic goals.
Background and approach
Sessions emphasize practical steps people can try between meetings. Her background includes work with trauma and abuse, substance use concerns, eating and body-image issues, and mood conditions such as bipolar disorder. She also addresses themes like abandonment, codependency, communication problems, and end-of-life concerns.
This range informs how she tailors interventions to what matters most to each client. Carla uses a mix of evidence-based methods to suit different needs. She draws from cognitive behavioral strategies to tackle unhelpful thinking, dialectical skills for emotion regulation, and trauma-focused tools when past events interfere with daily life.
Mindfulness and solution-focused techniques are also part of her toolbox. People who prefer straightforward, goal-oriented work may find her approach helpful. She aims to make therapy useful and manageable, with clear steps and ongoing collaboration.
For those ready to take a step toward change, she offers a steady, empathetic presence throughout the process.
How Carla’s Approaches Translate to Online Therapy
Carla commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing to address distressing thoughts and memories. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and testing small behavioral changes to reduce symptoms like anxiety and depression. EMDR helps process traumatic memories so they have less emotional charge during daily life.She also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. Those skills are taught in concrete steps and practiced together with the client. Choosing the right approach is collaborative; Carla will discuss goals, preferences, and what has worked in the past to tailor a plan that fits each person.
Online formats make it easier to keep consistent care. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction for skill coaching and EMDR-guided protocols. Phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is low or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging offer quick access for brief reflections, homework check-ins, or support between scheduled sessions. These options provide flexibility for different schedules and needs, while letting the therapist and client focus on practical progress.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family of origin issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 11 years
- Licensed
- West Virginia
- Languages
- English