About Brenda
Brenda Hanson is a licensed social worker who helps people facing stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and life transitions. She brings 41 years of clinical experience and a steady, practical style to sessions. Many clients come for help with relationship strain, work stress, addictions, and coping with change.
She focuses on plain, useful tools rather than jargon. Sessions often center on learning ways to manage intense emotions, change unhelpful patterns, and build day-to-day coping skills.
Background and approach
She draws on several therapeutic approaches to match what a person needs in the moment. Brenda uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice difficult thoughts and choose actions that fit their values. She also uses Attachment-Based and Client-Centered methods to deepen understanding of close relationships and strengthen self-compassion.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills may be used when emotion regulation and distress tolerance are goals. Her work is practical and collaborative. She listens first, then helps people set small, achievable steps to reduce overwhelm and increase control.
She supports people through issues such as parenting strain, sleep and eating problems, career concerns, and compassion fatigue. Brenda is licensed as an LSCSW in Kansas and as an LISW in Iowa. Sessions are offered in English and are available through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging.
To begin, a person completes a short matching questionnaire and schedules according to availability.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, then choose actions that match what matters most. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and changing behaviors to reduce anxiety and improve mood. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship experiences shape current connections and helps people build safer ways of relating.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will listen to a person's goals and preferences, then suggest methods to try. That decision happens together and can be adjusted as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different routines. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation for skills practice. Phone calls can be easier on low-bandwidth days or when being on camera isn't ideal. Chat and messaging are useful for quick check-ins, written reflection, or short coaching between sessions.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult 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)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 41 years
- Licensed
- Kansas, Iowa
- Languages
- English
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