About Lori
Lori Brinkley is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 25 years of experience helping people navigate stressful life moments. She practices in North Carolina and focuses on practical skills for day-to-day living. Lori speaks English and draws on a broad background to meet different concerns.
Lori aims for warm, direct conversations that get to the heart of a problem. She balances challenge with support and adds a bit of humor when it helps.
Background and approach
Sessions are focused on learning tools that can be used between appointments. She often helps people dealing with anxiety, stress, depression, grief, trauma and relationship difficulties. Parenting concerns, career stress, intimacy issues, eating struggles and compassion fatigue are also common topics.
Lori also works with issues such as abandonment, adoption and foster care questions, blended family dynamics, and caregiver stress. Her clinical style draws from Client-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, mindfulness and solution-focused work. That means she listens closely, helps people identify unhelpful patterns, practices new skills in session, and sets small, achievable goals.
The emphasis is on practical change rather than jargon. Outside of work she is a parent who enjoys nature, travel and reading. That personal perspective informs a down-to-earth approach in sessions.
She encourages clear steps toward goals and works with each person to tailor techniques to their life.
Therapeutic approaches adapted for online sessions
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on understanding each person's perspective and building a trusting working relationship. In an online session that means the therapist listens closely and reflects what matters most, creating space for people to set their own goals.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps people spot patterns of thinking that lead to unhelpful feelings or actions. Online CBT often uses concrete exercises, homework and step-by-step skill practice to reduce anxiety, depression and stress-related problems.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, teaches practical skills for managing intense emotions, improving relationships and tolerating distress. Online DBT work can include practicing mindfulness, emotion regulation and interpersonal techniques in ways that fit daily life.
Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about their needs, goals and preferences, and together they will try methods that feel right. Adjustments are made over time so the plan fits the person rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all method.
Online sessions offer flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. Video is useful for face-to-face conversation and practice; phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Chat and text are helpful for quick updates, brief coaching or staying connected between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy days while using approaches that produce tangible skills.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Parenting issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- North Carolina
- Languages
- English