About Bernice
Bernice Springer Richards is a licensed clinical social worker in New York with 18 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, motivation struggles, and depression. She frames therapy as a partnership and treats each person as the expert on their life. Her approach aims to help clients make clear, realistic changes that match their values and goals.
She uses practical, collaborative methods that focus on what will actually help in daily life.
Background and approach
Sessions often include goal-setting, skills practice, and straightforward strategies to reduce worry and lift mood. Bernice emphasizes small steps that add up to real progress over time. Her work also addresses relationship concerns, anger, coping with life transitions, and ADHD-related challenges.
She pays attention to issues connected to adoption and foster care, aging and geriatric concerns, body image, money and financial stress, life purpose, self-love, women’s issues, and young adult transitions. These topics are woven into sessions when they relate to a person’s main goals.
Bernice blends client-centered listening with techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing to help clients find workable solutions. She encourages realistic experiments between sessions and reviews what helps and what does not. The focus is on building useful habits that fit each person’s life.
People who prefer a calm, practical, and collaborative therapist often do well with her style. She aims to create an open space for honest conversation and steady progress toward clearer priorities and healthier coping.
Therapeutic approaches adapted for online care
Bernice often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people spot unhelpful thinking patterns and try different, practical responses. CBT is useful for anxiety, low mood, and day-to-day habits people want to change. She also relies on Client-Centered Therapy, which centers on listening closely and letting the client's priorities guide the work; this approach helps people feel heard and find their own direction.Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the process. The therapist works collaboratively with each person to choose methods that fit their goals, comfort, and pace. That shared planning can include trying a short experiment, reviewing results, and adjusting the plan together.
Online formats offer flexibility for people with busy lives. Video calls let sessions feel conversational and visual. Phone sessions can be simpler when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to use video. Live chat and text-based messaging make brief check-ins or focused problem-solving easier between longer sessions. These options help therapy fit around work, caregiving, study, and other responsibilities while keeping the focus on practical, goal-oriented change.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 18 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English