About Nicole
Nicole Guessford is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 23 years of practice. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, grief, parenting strain, and the fallout from trauma. Her approach tends to be structured and direct, while staying respectful and compassionate as you work through hard issues.
She creates treatment plans that fit each person’s needs and life. Expect practical steps and suggestions to use outside sessions, such as short exercises or skills practice.
Background and approach
Self-care and self-compassion are regular parts of her work together with clients. Nicole draws on several therapy approaches to guide sessions. She uses cognitive-behavioral techniques to identify unhelpful thoughts and ACT ideas to clarify values and take helpful action.
Attachment-based ideas can help when past relationships affect current stress and closeness. Her style is straightforward and goal-focused, so sessions often include discussion, skill-building, and assigned between-session tasks. Many people appreciate having clear steps to practice between meetings.
She tailors the pace and focus to each person’s situation. Nicole is licensed in Pennsylvania and Virginia and brings long experience working in clinical settings to her telehealth practice. She offers video, phone, live chat, and text messaging formats and supports sessions in English.
If you prefer a direct therapist who gives practical tools, she may be a good fit.
How practical therapy methods work online
Nicole draws from cognitive behavioral therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to offer practical, skills-based online work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors to reduce distress. It is often useful for anxiety, mood shifts, and sleep or eating concerns. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people clarify what matters to them and take small steps toward those values while accepting difficult feelings, which can help with stress, grief, and coping with life changes.Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will talk with each person about their needs, goals, and preferences and together decide which methods to emphasize. Sessions can shift over time as goals change and new challenges appear, keeping the work collaborative and flexible.
Online therapy offers practical access and scheduling options. Video calls let you use visual cues and more in-depth conversation. Phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited or a camera isn’t convenient. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, skill nudges, and ongoing support between sessions. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life while practicing the same techniques used in traditional sessions.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of issues does Nicole help with?
How would you describe her therapy style?
What is her clinical background?
What credentials and location information are on record?
In which language are sessions held and are international clients supported?
Which session formats are offered?
How is cost handled for sessions?
What are the steps to begin working with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Midlife crisis
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sleeping disorders
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Workplace 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)
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- Pennsylvania, Virginia
- Languages
- English