About Catherine
Dr. Catherine Alvarez is a licensed mental health counselor with 17 years of experience helping people move forward. She blends practical, evidence-informed approaches to address stress, anxiety, mood concerns, addictions, and relationship struggles.
Her style is warm and straightforward, with an emphasis on clear steps people can use between sessions. Clients meet a therapist who listens first and then helps set small, doable goals. Sessions often focus on managing emotions, improving communication, and developing healthier routines for sleeping and eating.
Background and approach
Dr. Alvarez uses methods that help people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. She has worked with people facing grief, trauma and abuse, parenting stress, burnout and compassion fatigue.
Dr. Alvarez also supports those coping with chronic health issues, body image concerns, and major life transitions. She brings experience with mood disorders including bipolar challenges and attention-related difficulties.
Her approach draws on cognitive and behavioral techniques, acceptance and commitment ideas, attachment perspectives, and client-centered principles. That mix lets her tailor sessions to what each person needs most. Practical skills, emotion regulation strategies, and clearer communication are common goals in her work.
Dr. Alvarez practices in Florida as an LMHC - Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Sessions are offered in English and can be arranged to fit busy schedules.
She aims for a collaborative, respectful process that focuses on what will make life easier day to day.
How evidence-based approaches work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people clarify what matters to them and take small actions that align with those values while also learning to live with difficult thoughts and feelings. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps identify and change unhelpful thinking patterns and build concrete skills for mood, sleep, and behavior. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and sleep or eating concerns. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early patterns of relating affect current relationships and helps people build more supported ways of connecting and communicating.Choosing the best approach is a shared process. Dr. Alvarez will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked in the past. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made or needs change.
Online therapy options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls let people use visual cues and more in-depth conversation. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth or being on camera is difficult. Live chat or text-based messaging can suit quick check-ins, brief skills practice, or shorter problem-focused sessions. These formats offer flexibility to fit therapy into busy days and different routines.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English