About Kristen
Kristen Gaughan is a Licensed Professional Counselor who brings 23 years of clinical experience to her work. She began pursuing counseling early in life and has spent decades helping people face stress, anxiety, addiction, and trauma. Kristen practices in Pennsylvania and holds a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.
She talks plainly and directly in sessions. Kristen listens first, then helps people set clear, manageable goals.
Background and approach
She offers practical techniques for coping with depression, low self-esteem, grief, and relationship strain. She also addresses addiction and process addictions such as gambling and compulsive behaviors. Kristen draws on several approaches to shape treatment.
Client-Centered Therapy guides how she builds a trusting relationship. Motivational Interviewing helps people find their own reasons to change. Psychodynamic ideas are used to understand past patterns that affect present life.
Her background includes work in many treatment settings, which gives her experience with complex and co-occurring issues like substance use paired with mental health concerns. She also focuses on problems such as caregiver stress, first responder challenges, blended family issues, and codependency. Sessions with Kristen are aimed at practical change.
She helps people learn skills to manage anger, cope with life transitions, and rebuild intimacy. The goal is steady progress toward more peaceful, functional days.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Kristen typically blends Client-Centered Therapy and Motivational Interviewing in online work. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on building a respectful, nonjudgmental relationship and helps people feel heard while they talk through difficult experiences. Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative way to explore ambivalence and strengthen a person’s own reasons for making change, which can help with addictions and habit shifts.She approaches therapeutic work as a team effort. Together the client and therapist will test what feels useful, adjust techniques, and decide which approach fits best for the client’s goals. That collaborative process helps shape session structure and priorities over time.
Online sessions are offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to make care flexible. Video calls let people use visual cues during deeper conversations. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth or camera use is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging make it simple to check in between longer sessions or fit therapy into a busy day. These options help people access care that works with their schedules and communication needs.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- Pennsylvania
- Languages
- English