About Frances
Frances McNamara is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with 15 years of experience helping people manage emotional and behavioral struggles. She focuses on clear, practical work that helps people get through daily challenges. Frances aims to create a straightforward, respectful space for people to talk about what matters to them.
Her background includes supporting people coping with anxiety, depression, stress, mood disorders, and ADHD. She has also worked with more complex presentations such as bipolar disorder, psychosis, and personality disorders.
Background and approach
Frances draws on a mix of evidence-informed approaches to match what each person needs. In sessions she uses cognitive and dialectical methods to build skills for managing intense emotions and difficult thoughts. She also uses client-centered and emotionally-focused ways of working to help people feel heard and understood.
These methods are blended into practical strategies rather than abstract theory. Frances emphasizes steady, present support. She gives people space to process grief, trauma, burnout, and life transitions while pointing toward concrete steps they can try between sessions.
Her approach is collaborative and paced to the person rather than rushed. She works with adults in Pennsylvania and conducts sessions in English. Frances aims to help people move from overwhelm toward clearer coping, whether that means managing panic, reducing depressive symptoms, addressing addiction concerns, or rebuilding self-esteem.
How Frances uses therapy approaches online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings without being driven by them, and then take values-guided action in daily life. It can be useful for anxiety, depression, and coping with big life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and testing them with real-life experiments to reduce symptoms like panic and low mood. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) emphasizes building emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills for intense emotions and impulsive behavior.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. Frances collaborates with each person to decide which methods fit their goals and preferences, and she adapts techniques as progress is made. She aims to make therapy a team effort rather than prescribing a single path.
Online sessions are offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to increase flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction for skills practice and deeper conversation. Phone sessions can be a lower-bandwidth option or easier to fit into a work break. Chat and text messaging are useful for shorter check-ins, step-by-step coaching, or ongoing support between longer sessions. These options help people access consistent support while fitting therapy into their daily routines.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Grief
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Trauma and abuse
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Pennsylvania
- Languages
- English