About Petra
Petra Gross helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, and major life changes. She supports adults working through relationship strain, family of origin issues, and concerns around self-esteem and identity. Petra also addresses trauma, grief, addictive behaviors, and challenges related to pregnancy and motherhood.
Petra is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and she brings ten years of clinical experience to her work. She creates a calm, respectful space where people can speak openly and feel heard.
Background and approach
Sessions blend practical skill-building with gentle reflection so progress feels steady and manageable. Her style is collaborative and straightforward. Early sessions focus on building trust, clarifying what matters most, and setting small, achievable goals.
Petra uses mindfulness and self-compassion exercises to reduce overwhelm and improve emotional regulation. She draws on cognitive behavioral techniques to help people notice unhelpful thinking patterns and test new behaviors. When emotions run high, skills from dialectical behavior therapy provide tools for distress tolerance and clearer communication.
Petra pays attention to cultural background and immigration-related stress when that is relevant to a person’s story. She also supports issues around body image, workplace strain, parenting challenges, and navigating the stresses of young adulthood. Sessions are offered in English, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian.
Petra practices in Virginia and frames therapy as an active partnership where clients set the pace and direction of their work.
How Petra Uses Evidence-Based Approaches Online
Petra often draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in online work. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on noticing thoughts without fighting them and taking steps that align with personal values; it can help with anxiety, depression, and life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and testing small behavior changes to reduce symptoms like persistent worry or low mood.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Petra will discuss goals and preferences in early sessions and adjust methods over time. She aims to match practical tools and reflective exercises to each person’s needs rather than using a single fixed method.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy flexible. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues, while phone work can be simpler when bandwidth is limited. Live chat or text messaging can fit into a busy day for short check-ins or brief coaching between sessions. These options help people fit therapy into work, parenting, or other routines while still using ACT and CBT tools in real time.
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Immigration issues
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Multicultural concerns
- Parenting issues
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self-love
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Virginia
- Languages
- English, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian