About Ann
Ann Ghabel is a licensed independent social worker (LISW) based in Iowa with 11 years of therapy experience. She focuses on easing stress and anxiety and helping people manage difficult life changes. Ann aims to make the first step feel manageable and supportive.
Her approach centers on listening and building trust. She creates a calm space where people can say what they’re feeling without judgment. That begins with simple questions and a steady pace that fits each person’s comfort level.
Background and approach
Ann uses practical methods to help people change unhelpful thought patterns and learn new coping skills. She often draws on cognitive behavioral techniques and mindfulness to reduce worry and improve sleep and mood. Dialectical skills are used when emotions feel intense and people need tools to regulate reactions.
She also brings experience from long work in inpatient child psychiatry as a nurse and as a teacher of psychiatric nursing. That background shaped her calm, straightforward manner and her focus on clear, usable strategies for everyday life.
Ann can address a wide range of concerns including depression, grief, trauma and abuse, parenting challenges, eating and sleeping problems, anger, self-esteem, and caregiver stress. She also works with people navigating adoption, attachment issues, chronic illness, and changes related to aging. Her goal is steady practical progress matched to each person’s needs.
Approaches that translate well to online care
Client-centered therapy is built around listening and working at the client’s pace. It focuses on understanding a person’s concerns and shaping sessions around their goals, which helps when adjusting tools for video or text formats.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches practical ways to notice and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. CBT works well online through worksheets, thought records, and short exercises that people can do between sessions. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers concrete skills for regulating strong emotions and improving distress tolerance, useful when someone needs step-by-step tools for overwhelm or anger.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Ann will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs and preferences. That means trying an approach and adjusting it over time based on what helps most.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video lets people use visual cues and screen-shared materials, phone can be a simpler option with lower bandwidth, and messaging is useful for brief check-ins or ongoing support between sessions. These choices make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to use tools in the way that works best for the individual.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 11 years
- Licensed
- Iowa
- Languages
- English
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