About Valerie
Valerie Keller Gates is a licensed professional counselor in Oklahoma who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, and life changes. She meets each person where they are and offers straightforward, compassionate support. Her style is honest and down-to-earth, aimed at helping people feel understood and able to talk through difficult issues.
She takes a client-centered approach while also using cognitive-behavioral ideas and other methods as needed. Sessions focus on practical steps and clearer thinking, along with space to process strong emotions.
Background and approach
Valerie adapts her work to each person's goals and pace rather than following a rigid plan. Valerie trained in human relations and family studies and holds a Master of Human Relations with an emphasis in licensed professional counseling from the University of Oklahoma. She also has a Bachelor of Science in Family Studies and Gerontology from Southern Nazarene University.
This background informs her attention to family dynamics and life transitions. Over seven years she has supported people dealing with trauma, abuse, bipolar disorder, ADHD, parenting concerns, intimacy issues, and relationship stress. She has experience working in individual and group contexts and with a range of mood and behavioral difficulties.
In sessions she is transparent, caring, and direct in a helpful way. Treatment plans are shaped to the person’s needs and may draw from mindfulness, narrative work, or targeted strategies for symptoms. The aim is steady progress and practical tools that fit everyday life.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and understanding the person’s experience. The therapist follows the client’s lead, reflects what they say, and helps them find their own solutions; it works well for building trust and talking through emotions.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors connect. It uses practical exercises and small experiments to change unhelpful patterns, which can help with anxiety, depression, and stress-related problems.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, known as EMDR, is a structured approach used to lessen the intensity of traumatic memories. It can be helpful for people coping with past trauma who want to reduce vivid, distressing reactions.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals and preferences and may blend methods over time. Together they decide which strategies to try and adjust the plan based on what helps most.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text messaging. Video is useful for deeper conversations and visual cues, phone sessions are easier when bandwidth is low, live chat can work for brief check-ins, and messaging lets people share thoughts between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and to continue work on symptoms and relationships without extra travel.
Questions people ask
What concerns does Valerie address?
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What background does she bring to sessions?
Where is she licensed and practicing?
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What session formats are available?
How are costs handled and how do I begin?
What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Oklahoma
- Languages
- English