About Kristen
Kristen Paeth is a licensed clinical social worker practicing from Wisconsin. She usually connects with adults who are facing anxiety, depression, grief, or the stress of life changes. Kristen listens closely and helps people build practical steps they can try between sessions.
Kristen has eight years of experience in social work and therapy. Before focusing on clinical practice she worked in child protective services and provided in-home autism therapy. Those roles shaped her approach to safety, clear planning, and straightforward communication.
Background and approach
She uses a client-centered way of working that starts by asking what matters most to each person. Kristen pairs that with cognitive behavioral techniques to help people spot unhelpful thinking and test new behaviors. She also draws on mindfulness and solution-focused methods to support short-term goals and better day-to-day coping.
Her practice includes a range of concerns such as addiction, trauma and abuse, intimacy-related issues, parenting stress, career strain, and compassion fatigue. She also offers support around topics like BDSM and kink, cancer-related stress, caregiver strain, and communication problems. Kristen earned a Master of Social Work from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2017 and holds LCSW and LICSW credentials.
She aims to create a calm, practical space where people can try new strategies and move toward goals at their own pace.
How Kristen’s approaches work online
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and building a plan that fits each person. In practice this means the therapist asks about what matters most, shapes goals with the client, and adjusts sessions to match progress and preferences.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people spot unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors. It is useful for anxiety, depression, stress, and many day-to-day problems where thinking patterns get in the way of feeling better.
Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple attention and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and improve focus. It pairs well with other approaches when someone wants calmer reactions or better stress management.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will help identify which methods fit a person’s needs, goals, and comfort level. Decisions are made together and may shift as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video allows a deeper face-to-face conversation, phone calls can work when bandwidth is limited, live chat is useful for quick check-ins, and messaging supports shorter, ongoing contact between sessions. These options help people fit therapy into work, caregiving, and other daily demands.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Wisconsin, Minnesota
- Languages
- English