About Paula
Dr. Paula Ehrmantraut helps people manage stress, anxiety, depression, relationship troubles, and struggles with addiction. She approaches concerns involving LGBT issues and a broad range of life challenges with calm, steady support.
Dr. Ehrmantraut is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor - LCPC and a Licensed Professional Counselor in South Dakota, with 17 years of experience. She keeps sessions practical and straightforward.
Dr. Ehrmantraut listens first to understand what feels most urgent, then works with each person to set simple, attainable goals.
Background and approach
Conversations often focus on small daily changes that add up over time. Her work draws on client-centered methods and cognitive behavior strategies to shift thinking and habits. She also uses dialectical behavior ideas to help regulate emotions and Emotionally-Focused Therapy to address painful relationship patterns.
These approaches are mixed to fit the person in front of her. Dr. Ehrmantraut also has experience with adoption and foster care concerns, aging and geriatric issues, attachment challenges, autism and Asperger syndrome, body image, chronic illness and pain, and codependency.
She can help with communication problems, commitment worries, and recovery from domestic violence or substance issues. Sessions are offered in English and are available to clients in South Dakota and beyond. Her style aims to be nonjudgmental and practical, helping people find one small step they can take today.
If someone prefers a collaborative, down-to-earth approach, she offers a steady, experienced guide.
Therapeutic approaches and online care that fit your life
Client-centered therapy starts with listening. It helps people feel heard and shapes goals based on what matters most to them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on finding patterns in thoughts and behaviors and testing small changes to reduce anxiety or depression symptoms.Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, teaches practical skills for managing intense emotions and improving coping in stressful moments. These approaches can be used together to address relationship issues, stress, substance concerns, and mood problems in a way that suits the person.
Finding the best approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with the client about goals and preferences and then try methods that fit. That process is collaborative, with adjustments made as needed rather than a one-size-fits-all plan.
Online therapy offers useful flexibility. Video calls let people see body language and hold deeper conversations. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a quick check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for shorter updates, noting progress, or handling brief moments of distress between sessions. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy schedule while keeping the focus on real, usable tools.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Body image
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed
- Montana, Washington, South Dakota, Utah
- Languages
- English