About Frances
Frances Merz is a Licensed Professional Counselor in New Jersey with 19 years of clinical experience. She focuses on practical change and helps people who want to improve a life situation, solve a problem, or better understand their circumstances. Her style is straightforward and collaborative, asking clients what they want to achieve and shaping sessions around those goals.
She uses a mix of counseling techniques chosen to fit each person.
Background and approach
That means sessions look different depending on strengths and needs rather than following a fixed formula. Frances emphasizes working together - therapy requires effort from both the counselor and the person seeking help. Frances has supported people facing anxiety, low self-esteem, social anxiety and phobia, depression, bipolar concerns, and stress from daily life.
She also helps with career questions, coping with life changes, grief, compassion fatigue, and sleep problems. Young adult issues, seasonal affective disorder, and life purpose questions are additional areas she addresses. She offers focused help for parents managing parenting challenges and for people dealing with trauma and abuse.
Frances also works with those thinking about or recovering from weight loss surgery and with clients who need medical advocacy help, such as preparing questions for providers and managing health-related tasks. Her approach is flexible and practical. Frances generally replies to messages Monday through Thursday and typically returns messages within 24 hours.
She aims to support and empower people as they work toward their goals.
How Frances uses CBT and Solution-Focused work online
Frances commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice links between thoughts, feelings, and actions. CBT sessions often include practicing new thinking habits and small behavioral experiments to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, or address low mood.She also draws on Solution-Focused Therapy to keep sessions forward-looking and goal oriented. That approach helps people identify small, concrete steps they can try between meetings to move toward career goals, life changes, or improved coping.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Frances will discuss your goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked before, then tailor techniques to fit your situation. She revisits the plan as you progress to make sure the work stays useful.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful for in-depth conversation and exercises, phone calls can fit a short break at work or when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging work well for quick check-ins and skills practice. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule while keeping the focus on practical change.
Questions people ask
What concerns does Frances commonly address?
What is her general therapeutic style?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What credentials and location apply to her practice?
Which languages are supported for sessions?
Can international clients schedule sessions?
What session formats are available?
How do fees and getting started work?
What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
Also listed
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Life purpose
- Parenting issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 19 years
- Licensed
- New Jersey
- Languages
- English