About Darlene
Darlene Kelly is a licensed social worker with 24 years of experience helping people through hard seasons. She focuses on practical conversation and steady support so clients can figure out next steps. Darlene offers calm listening and clear guidance for people feeling stuck or overwhelmed.
She bases her work on approaches that focus on values, relationships, and daily skills. That means talking about what matters, how bonds shape feelings, and what small actions can make a difference.
Background and approach
Sessions are straightforward and geared toward real life, not theory alone. Darlene has worked with people facing trauma, anxiety, depression, and mood concerns such as bipolar disorder. She also helps with stress, burnout, addictions, relationship and intimacy questions, body image, sleep and eating issues, and parenting concerns.
Other focus areas include ADHD, grief, caregiving stress, and life transitions. Clients can expect a respectful, nonjudgmental space to speak about hard things. Darlene helps name patterns and test new ways of responding.
She aims to help people build skills and notice what changes improve daily life. Her practice draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, attachment-based ideas, client-centered methods, cognitive behavioral techniques, and dialectical behavior tools. Darlene holds a Licensed Clinical Social Worker credential and works with adults across a broad range of concerns from her Louisiana location.
Approaches that translate to online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on clarifying what matters to you and taking small actions toward those values. It helps with anxiety, depression, and life changes by teaching ways to notice difficult thoughts without getting stuck. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how relationships shape feelings and reactions, and helps people change patterns that cause distance or conflict. It is useful for relationship and intimacy concerns and for improving emotional connection. Client-Centered Therapy centers the person in the room, offering listening and reflection so people can understand themselves better and decide what they want to change.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Darlene collaborates with each person to match methods to their goals and preferences. She listens to what matters most, suggests approaches that fit, and adjusts as needs evolve so the process feels like a shared plan rather than a menu of techniques.
Online sessions can be scheduled as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to suit different days and needs. Video is useful when visual connection matters, phone calls work well with limited bandwidth, and chat or messaging can fit quick check-ins or busy schedules. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or other responsibilities while still doing focused, skills-based work.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- LGBT
- Trauma and abuse
- Parenting issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Stress, Anxiety
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult 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
- Gottman Method
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 24 years
- Licensed
- Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi
- Languages
- English