Colleen Overholt

Colleen Overholt is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 26 years of clinical experience in California. She helps people manage stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, grief, self-esteem concerns, parenting challenges, sleep problems, and ADHD. Colleen also supports people facing relationship and family conflict, career stress, bipolar disorder, and burnout-related compassion fatigue.

Her style is warm and practical. She listens first and follows the client's lead on what matters most. Sessions focus on discovering strengths, building skills, and setting small, realistic goals that fit daily life. Colleen offers structure and guidance while remaining accepting and nonjudgmental.

Colleen uses a mix of approaches depending on each person's needs. You may encounter mindfulness practices to help settle the body and attention, cognitive behavioral techniques to challenge unhelpful thoughts, and client-centered discussion to clarify values and goals. She also draws on psychodynamic ideas and motivational interviewing to explore patterns and spark change.

She has worked across private practice, schools, clinics, and community programs in roles from clinician to program and regional leadership. That breadth gives her experience with a wide range of life circumstances and mental health concerns. Colleen emphasizes the therapeutic relationship as the base for change and aims to make therapy empowering and useful.

To begin, she asks people to be clear about what they hope to get from therapy and to participate actively in shaping the work. The focus is on practical steps, personal strengths, and steady progress toward the goals the client sets.

How therapy approaches translate to online work

Mindfulness Therapy helps people bring attention to the present moment with simple breathing and body-awareness practices. It can reduce reactivity and be useful for anxiety, sleep problems, and managing strong emotions. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening, acceptance, and reflecting what the client says so they can clarify values and goals and feel understood. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and behavior and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns.

Choosing the right approach is part of the therapeutic process. The therapist will work together with the client to decide which strategies fit their goals and preferences. That may mean trying mindfulness practices alongside CBT exercises or using client-centered conversation to shape which skills feel most relevant.

Session format options are not specified here, so confirm current session choices before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life by reducing travel time, allowing shorter check-ins when needed, and letting sessions happen from different everyday locations. It also supports continuity of care when schedules or routines change. Licensed professionals adapt tools and exercises so people can practice skills between sessions and apply them to real-life situations.