About Rita
Rita Downs is a licensed professional counselor practicing in Oregon with 25 years of experience in clinical work and behavioral health administration. She works with people facing stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, and other difficult life events. Rita emphasizes practical steps and steady support so people can move forward at their own pace.
Her approach begins by listening and treating each person as the expert on their life. Sessions focus on clear goals and skills that can be used between meetings.
Background and approach
She draws on client-centered methods that prioritize the client's perspective and strengths. Rita also uses cognitive behavioral techniques to help people identify unhelpful thinking and try new behaviors. Motivational interviewing helps when someone feels stuck or unsure about change.
For trauma and related concerns, she incorporates trauma-focused strategies to address painful memories and reactions. Over the years she has helped people with parenting stress, grief, anger, ADHD, bipolar concerns, career transitions, and coping with major life changes. She also supports issues tied to aging, caregiver stress, autism, blended family situations, substance misuse, and first responder stress.
Rita aims to make sessions straightforward and usable. She helps clients set small, realistic steps and checks progress together. If you want a calm, practical counselor who listens and helps plan change, she may be a fit.
Approaches that translate well to online therapy
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and following the person's lead. It emphasizes the client's strengths and priorities and helps shape sessions around what matters most. This approach works well for stress, self-esteem, and decision-making concerns.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, teaches practical skills to change thinking patterns and behaviors. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and coping with life changes because it gives clear steps and exercises to practice between sessions. Motivational interviewing supports people who feel stuck or unsure about change by exploring values and boosting internal motivation.
Choosing the right approach is part of the work. Rita will collaborate with clients to decide which methods fit their goals and preferences. She checks in regularly and adjusts plans based on what helps in real life.
Online sessions via video, phone, live chat, or text messaging make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls allow a face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be less demanding on bandwidth, chat can work for shorter check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between meetings. These options provide flexibility so people can keep therapy consistent while balancing other responsibilities.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Impulsivity
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Oregon
- Languages
- English