About Paula
Dr. Paula Alvarez is a licensed clinical social worker with 35 years of experience. She practices in Missouri and speaks English.
She is known for a calm, straightforward style and focuses on practical steps people can use right away. She helps people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar symptoms, ADHD, addictions, grief, and relationship or intimacy concerns. She also supports those facing caregiving strain, life transitions, identity and LGBT matters, and work or career questions.
Background and approach
Her approach aims to make daily life more manageable and less overwhelming. Her training includes a doctorate in Organizational Psychology and long experience in both locked and outpatient mental health settings. That background informs how she organizes sessions and suggests realistic strategies that fit a client's life.
She has facilitated group work with people involved in domestic violence interventions in both Spanish and English. In sessions she adapts methods to each person. She draws on client-centered listening to follow what matters most to the client.
She also uses cognitive-behavioral techniques and elements of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy when those tools suit the goal. Practical tools such as brief homework, reading suggestions, and short skills practice are commonly offered. People who want clear steps and steady support find the sessions focused and useful.
To begin, she asks about current struggles and what a better week would look like, then builds small, achievable goals.
How specific approaches work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. It focuses on building small habits and accepting difficult feelings while moving toward meaningful goals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy identifies patterns of thinking and behavior that keep problems going and teaches practical skills to change them. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and managing attention-related difficulties.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will listen to what matters most and recommend methods that fit goals and daily life. Together they try approaches, track what helps, and adjust the plan if needed so therapy stays relevant and practical.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make care flexible. Video calls allow face-to-face work and skills practice. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is low or a session needs to fit a short break. Messaging and live chat are helpful for brief check-ins, homework review, or ongoing coaching between longer sessions. These options help people keep therapy going alongside work, school, caregiving, or travel.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed
- California, Missouri, Illinois
- Languages
- English
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