About Cathy
Cathy Heaps-Stetson is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with about 30 years of experience helping people manage major life changes, loss, and ongoing stress. She takes a person-centered approach and listens carefully to help people find their own answers. Sessions are calm and supportive, focused on practical steps people can use right away.
She blends client-centered methods with cognitive behavioral tools. That means she helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and then practices new ways of thinking and acting.
Background and approach
She also uses mindfulness and relaxation skills to reduce anxiety and improve sleep. Cathy has long experience working with grief and serious illness, and she supports people facing relationship struggles, parenting stress, career questions, and changes that follow separation or caregiving responsibilities. She also addresses eating and intimacy-related concerns, anger, low self-esteem, and compassion fatigue.
In sessions she uses reflective listening and gentle questioning so clients can explore feelings without judgment. The work is collaborative - she helps people set goals and tries short, focused strategies to see what helps. Many sessions include simple homework and practice to build new habits.
Her practice fits people who want a steady, empathetic presence and tools they can use at home. Based in Florida, she works with adults who want practical ways to cope, heal after loss, and move forward from difficult life changes.
Approaches that translate well to online therapy
Client-centered therapy focuses on understanding the person from their own point of view and offering empathic listening. Online sessions using this approach let people talk through feelings and find their own solutions with the therapist's support. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps people spot and change negative thought patterns and then practice new behaviors. CBT works well over video or phone because tools and homework can be shared and reviewed between sessions. Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) concentrates on identifying emotions that drive relationship and intimacy issues and then building new emotional responses to improve connection and communication.Choosing the right approach is something the therapist will do together with the client. She will ask about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn't helped before. From that conversation she tailors a plan that may use one method or combine several, and she checks in to adjust the plan as progress is made.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction and shared worksheets. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or a camera is not wanted. Live chat and text messaging suit brief check-ins, short coaching, or times when written reflection is easier. These options offer flexibility so therapy can fit into work, caregiving, and other daily routines.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English