About Brian
Brian Olden is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) practicing in California with 45 years of experience. He has spent decades helping people navigate major life changes, manage stress and anxiety, and address relationship or intimacy-related problems. He offers straightforward, goal-focused support and works with clients to set realistic next steps.
Brian combines practical talk with active listening. He values building shared goals with each person he sees. Sessions focus on identifying strengths and creating simple strategies that fit everyday life.
Background and approach
He helps people who struggle with sleep, anger, self-esteem, career stress, and parenting challenges. His background includes long experience with trauma, including sexual and military trauma, and with people facing chronic illness or caregiving burdens. He has helped clients through grief, divorce, adoption and blended family issues, and end-of-life concerns.
He also supports those coping with bipolar disorder, compassion fatigue, and impulsivity. Brian uses a mix of approaches to match what a person needs. He draws on client-centered methods to follow the client’s lead, cognitive behavioral tools to shape helpful thinking and behavior, and emotionally focused techniques to address relationship patterns.
He also works with narrative ideas and EMDR for trauma where appropriate. He lived overseas for several years and pays attention to cultural differences in how life events are experienced. Sessions are conducted in English and offered through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging.
To begin, people choose the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule sessions based on availability.
Therapeutic approaches and online options
Brian often combines client-centered work and cognitive behavioral therapy to address daily problems and shifting life patterns. Client-centered therapy means the conversation follows the client’s priorities and values, which helps clarify goals and next steps. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on practical tools to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, useful for anxiety, mood, sleep, and ADHD-related challenges.He also uses emotionally focused ideas when relationship patterns are central, helping people notice and change interaction cycles that cause distance or repeated conflict. Choosing the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss options, listen to your goals, and together decide which methods best match your needs and preferences.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy fit your schedule. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when more nuance is helpful. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or when you prefer not to be on camera. Live chat and text messaging work well for brief check-ins, journaling between sessions, or for people who prefer writing over spoken conversation. These options provide flexibility so therapy can fit into busy lives.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
- Depression
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 45 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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