About Cathleen
Cathleen Lilavois is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) based in New York. She brings four years of clinical practice focused on helping people manage stress and anxiety. Her style is straightforward and compassionate, aimed at people who want clear tools and steady support during difficult times.
Cathleen listens for the strengths people already have and helps them use those strengths to move forward. She talks through practical steps for day-to-day stress, mood worries, and challenges with self-esteem.
Background and approach
Sessions tend to focus on concrete goals and skills that can be used between meetings. Her work often covers trauma and abuse, and she supports people processing related feelings. She also helps parents cope with the strain of raising children and the emotional toll that can bring.
Compassion fatigue and burnout are areas she addresses with tools to restore energy and purpose. Cathleen has experience with concerns such as abandonment, adoption and foster care issues, attachment difficulties, and communication struggles. She also works with mood disorders, seasonal affective disorder, isolation and questions about life purpose and self-love.
Clients can expect an approach that values their story and their choices. Cathleen aims to create a practical plan together, using everyday language and clear steps. She encourages small changes that add up to meaningful progress.
Evidence-based approaches and online care
Many evidence-based therapeutic techniques focus on teaching skills people can use every day. One common approach helps people learn coping strategies for anxiety and stress, such as breathing, grounding, and step-by-step behavior changes to reduce overwhelm. Another approach concentrates on processing trauma and difficult memories at a pace the person can tolerate, while building safety and emotional regulation skills. These approaches aim to reduce symptoms and improve day-to-day functioning rather than promise a quick fix.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to identify goals, try methods that fit their needs, and adjust plans as progress is made. Clients play an active role in deciding which techniques feel most helpful and practical for their lives.
Online sessions offer flexibility and several ways to connect. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when visual cues matter. Phone sessions can be easier when a quieter or lower-bandwidth option is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging are available for brief check-ins, shorter conversations, or to follow up between scheduled sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule and to continue work even when in-person visits are difficult.
Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does she help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much clinical experience does she have?
Where is her practice based and what credential does she hold?
Can I work with her in a language other than English?
What session formats are available?
How does billing and cost work?
How do I begin working with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- Experience
- 4 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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