About Denise
Dr. Denise Petrelli-Holst is a Licensed Professional Counselor with 26 years in the helping professions. She brings a varied work history into her counseling, blending business, education, and creative roles to support practical problem solving.
Her approach is straightforward and adaptable to the needs of each person she meets. She frames therapy as a partnership. Sessions focus on simple, usable tools people can try between meetings.
She helps people deal with stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar mood concerns, and the challenges of ADHD.
Background and approach
Discussions also cover self-esteem, relationships, career questions, grief, and coping with life changes. Her background includes time in the auto industry, mentoring and tutoring, art therapy, teaching, and business consulting. Those roles shaped a pragmatic style that values real-world solutions.
She draws on many approaches to match what a person needs rather than follow a single method. In sessions she uses methods from cognitive behavioral and acceptance-based work, attachment ideas, and skills drawn from dialectical practice. Clients can expect a mix of talking, skill practice, and planning for what comes next.
The tone is calm, direct, and focused on finding steps that fit daily life. Dr. Petrelli-Holst offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging.
She works from Wisconsin and conducts sessions in English. Getting started involves a short matching questionnaire and scheduling a time to meet.
Therapeutic Approaches Suited to Online Care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on clarifying what matters most and taking small actions toward those values. It can help with anxiety, depression, and the frustration that often comes with ADHD by teaching ways to move forward despite difficult thoughts and feelings. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT, is about noticing unhelpful thinking and testing new behaviors. It is useful for anxiety, low mood, and coping with life changes through clear exercises and homework assignments.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk about goals, try strategies, and adjust methods based on what works for the individual. That way the plan matches a person's needs, pace, and daily life rather than following one fixed method.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to give flexibility. Video is good when visual cues and deeper conversation matter. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a quieter voice check-in is needed. Live chat and text are useful for shorter check-ins, ongoing coaching, and quick skill practice between longer sessions.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Cancer
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Relationship issues
- Self-love
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace 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
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 26 years
- Licensed
- Wisconsin
- Languages
- English
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