About Deanna
Deanna Bennet Ridgway is a licensed clinical social worker in California who helps people manage stress and anxiety. She supports those facing relationship strains, trauma and abuse, low self-esteem, and motivation struggles. Her style is straightforward and warm, aimed at making the first steps feel doable for someone unsure about therapy.
She creates an open space to talk through thoughts and feelings without judgment. Sessions focus on practical ways to reduce overwhelming symptoms and build confidence.
Background and approach
Conversations are collaborative and paced to match each person's needs. Deanna draws on evidence-based therapeutic techniques to address grief, compassion fatigue, and major life changes. She also assists with body image concerns, caregiver stress, divorce and separation, and questions about life purpose and self-love.
Her approach is to break bigger problems into manageable steps. With seven years of professional experience she meets people where they are and helps them set realistic goals. Work often includes short-term skill-building for coping, alongside deeper work when needed.
Deanna encourages steady progress rather than quick fixes. She offers sessions in English and provides therapy through video calls, phone, live chat, and text-based messaging. To begin clients complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule sessions according to availability.
Evidence-based approaches and online care
Deanna uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques to guide sessions. One common approach focuses on skill-building for anxiety and stress - teaching breathing and grounding strategies, activity planning, and ways to manage overwhelming thoughts. These skills are useful for day-to-day coping and for reducing the intensity of anxious moments.Another approach emphasizes processing trauma and difficult emotions through paced, supportive conversation. This work helps people make sense of painful experiences and reduce the grip of distressing memories so they feel more able to move forward. Both methods are practical and tailored to each person's pace and readiness.
Choosing the right approach is a shared process. The therapist works together with each person to identify goals, try methods, and adjust the plan based on what helps most. That collaborative decision-making aims to match techniques to the client's needs and preferences.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy lives. Video calls let people use visual cues and have richer conversations. Phone sessions can fit into a quick break or be easier when bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging make brief check-ins and ongoing support possible between sessions. These options allow therapy to work around schedules and life demands rather than the other way around.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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