About Sharlene
Sharlene Duplessis uses trauma-informed approaches to help people regain steadiness after hard experiences. She is a licensed clinical social worker with 16 years of practice in Connecticut. Her work focuses on practical skills for anxiety, depression, mood disorders, and coping with life changes.
She helps people notice small gains and build on them over time. Sharlene draws on several methods that suit different needs. She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to spot unhelpful thinking and build new habits.
Background and approach
Dialectical Behavior Therapy helps with strong emotions and teaches coping skills. She also uses Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing for processing traumatic memories when that’s appropriate. Sessions aim to be down-to-earth and goal oriented.
Clients can expect straightforward tools for stress, anger, self-esteem, and relationship concerns. She also supports people facing parenting strain, blended family challenges, and problems rooted in family of origin. Her approach emphasizes collaboration.
She works with each person to set realistic steps and measures small victories along the way. Sharlene encourages a steady, day-by-day mindset rather than pushing for quick fixes. Beyond trauma work, she helps with career stress, life purpose questions, and feelings of isolation or shame.
Her practice includes care for those managing bipolar disorder, ADHD, self-harm urges, and recovery from loss or separation. The focus is on practical change and clearer next steps.
Therapeutic approaches that translate well to online care
Sharlene commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people identify unhelpful thoughts and practice new ways of responding. CBT breaks problems into clear steps and offers concrete exercises to try between sessions, which works well in virtual formats. Dialectical Behavior Therapy focuses on emotional regulation and distress tolerance skills. DBT teaches short practices for grounding, breathing, and managing strong feelings that people can use wherever they are. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing helps process traumatic memories by combining focused attention with guided eye movements or other bilateral stimulation when appropriate.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, symptoms, and preferences to decide which methods to try first. This is a collaborative process and plans can be adjusted as progress is tracked.
Online sessions offer practical benefits like flexibility and easier scheduling. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and exercises that need visual cues. Phone sessions work well for those with limited bandwidth or who prefer not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging suit quick check-ins, brief coaching, and ongoing practice between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to continue regular work on goals.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
- Self esteem
Also works with
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Stress, Anxiety
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 16 years
- Licensed
- Connecticut
- Languages
- English