About Kristi
Dr. Kristi Hottenstein brings two decades of counseling work to her practice in Michigan. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor - LPC and holds an LPCC credential.
She combines clinical experience with a practical, down-to-earth style to help people facing everyday and complex challenges. She earned a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Toledo and a master's in counseling from the University of La Verne. Her academic background informs how she guides people through decision points like career shifts and college selection.
Background and approach
She also draws on a long history of client work since first becoming licensed in Michigan in 2009. Her approach is flexible and person-focused. She uses tools from cognitive behavioral therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people notice unhelpful thinking and take values-based action.
She also offers client-centered listening so people feel heard while working through strong emotions. Dr. Hottenstein helps with a wide range of concerns, including stress, anxiety, depression, relationship and intimacy issues, grief, addictions, ADHD, and career transitions.
She also addresses more specific topics like body image, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and attachment concerns. Sessions are collaborative and practical. She helps people set small goals, practice new skills between meetings, and track progress over time.
She aims to make therapy understandable and doable for people juggling work, family, and other life demands.
Therapeutic approaches for online work and growth
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice difficult thoughts without getting stuck in them and then take small steps toward what matters to them. It can be useful for anxiety, depression, and coping with life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors connect and uses practical exercises to shift unhelpful patterns; it often helps with anxiety, mood, and sleep problems. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes empathetic listening and respect for the person's own pace, creating space for people to explore their goals and values.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to pick methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. Plans are revisited as progress is made so the work stays relevant and useful.
Online therapy offers several practical benefits. Video calls let people use visual cues and deeper conversation, while phone sessions can be lower bandwidth and easier during a busy day. Live chat and text-based messaging make brief check-ins and skill practice easy between meetings. These options give flexibility for people balancing work, school, and caregiving while still doing focused therapeutic work with a licensed professional.
Questions people ask
What kinds of concerns does she address?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she have?
What credentials and location are listed?
Are sessions offered in languages other than English?
Which session formats are available?
How are costs and billing handled?
What steps are needed to begin working with her?
What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Michigan, Texas, Arizona, California, New Jersey, Virginia
- Languages
- English