About Barbara
Barbara Pettibone, LCSW, CSW, helps people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, grief, major life changes, and relationship challenges. She has worked in mental health for decades and brings a calm, practical style to sessions. She treats concerns like depression, trauma, parenting strain, caregiving stress, and issues around intimacy and communication.
Barbara has more than 46 years of experience in both inpatient psychiatric hospitals and outpatient settings. She has particular experience supporting older adults through aging-related changes such as loss, shifting relationships, and health concerns.
Background and approach
Her background includes long-term clinical work that spans crisis care and steady therapeutic support. Her approach centers on the person in front of her. She believes the client is the boss and that therapy is a partnership.
Together they clarify the problems to address and set realistic goals for change. Barbara describes herself as honest, warm, and direct while being caring and encouraging. She draws from several methods to meet each person's needs, including attachment-based, client-centered, cognitive behavioral, dialectical behavior, and emotionally-focused strategies.
She may combine insight work, mindfulness, behavioral techniques, and grief-focused interventions depending on the situation. Sessions aim to be practical and focused on steps that reduce distress and build stronger coping. Barbara welcomes adults and seniors and works to create straightforward plans people can follow between meetings.
She invites anyone ready to begin to take the next step toward feeling better.
Therapy approaches that translate to online care
Attachment-based work focuses on how early connections shape current relationships and emotions; it helps people who struggle with trust, abandonment fears, or difficulties forming close bonds. Client-centered therapy emphasizes the person's own goals and strengths, offering attentive listening and support that helps people clarify what matters and decide on practical next steps. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches concrete skills to reduce anxiety, change unhelpful thinking, and improve mood.Choosing the best approach is part of the therapy process. The therapist will work collaboratively to figure out which methods fit a person's goals and preferences. That may mean starting with supportive listening, adding CBT skills for anxiety, or using attachment-focused discussions when relationship patterns are central.
Online sessions via video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video is useful for in-depth sessions that need face-to-face interaction. Phone sessions can be simpler when bandwidth is limited or for a shorter check-in. Live chat and text messaging let people share thoughts between meetings and get flexible support during the week. These options aim to make consistent therapeutic work more accessible and manageable.
Questions people ask
What kinds of concerns does Barbara help with?
What is her general therapy style?
How long has she been practicing?
What credentials and location are listed?
Which languages are supported and are international clients accepted?
How are sessions delivered?
What does therapy cost?
How do I begin working with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 46 years
- Licensed
- Colorado
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.