About Jessica
Jessica Drennen is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 14 years of experience. She focuses on stress, anxiety, addictions, trauma, depression, and issues that affect identity and relationships. Jessica keeps things direct and practical to help people take steps forward.
She listens first and follows the pace the person sets. Sessions cover both immediate problems and patterns that keep showing up. Jessica is willing to name hard topics such as substance use, identity, and trauma so they can be worked through together.
Background and approach
Her work draws on approaches that help people notice thoughts and habits, try small changes, and practice new skills. She uses techniques from cognitive behavioral work and mindfulness to address mood and anxiety. Motivational interviewing helps when someone is thinking about change but feels stuck.
Jessica also incorporates dialectical strategies for managing intense emotions and improving coping. She aims to make skills concrete and usable in everyday life. The goal is to leave each session with at least one small, doable step.
Clients come for concerns such as grief, parenting stress, ADHD, eating and body image problems, relationship struggles, and recovery from abuse or domestic violence. Jessica works with people across a wide range of life stages to help them build clearer choices and steadier routines. She practices in North Carolina and offers sessions in English.
Jessica encourages people to be curious about change and to try approaches that fit their goals and values.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and responding to what matters most to the person. The therapist follows the client's lead, helping them name priorities and decide what to work on next. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and try small experiments to change them, which is useful for anxiety, depression, and some eating concerns. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers emotion regulation and distress-tolerance skills for intense feelings and relationship strain, and it supports building practical routines.Finding the right approach is a team effort. The therapist will talk about different methods, try things out, and adjust based on what helps most. Decisions about techniques and tools are made together, based on the client's goals and day-to-day life.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy flexible. Video is helpful for deeper conversations and skill practice, phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited, and chat or text can be used for quick check-ins or ongoing coaching between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, school, or caregiving schedules while continuing steady progress.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- North Carolina
- Languages
- English