About Donald
Dr. Donald Strauss is a clinician with more than five decades of experience. He holds an MD and is licensed as an LCSW-C and LISW.
He has worked with many kinds of concerns and brings a calm, practical style to sessions. He focuses on stress and anxiety along with mood and relationship difficulties. He also supports people facing grief, trauma and issues like addictions or eating and sleeping problems.
He has long experience helping caregivers and those with chronic illness or complex medical conditions.
Background and approach
His approach is straightforward and problem-focused. He uses cognitive tools to help people change unhelpful thinking and develop different behaviors. He also draws on attachment ideas to look at how early relationships shape current patterns.
Sessions aim to identify strategies that fit a person’s life. Treatment includes short-term, solution-focused work and deeper exploration when needed. Conversations often move between practical steps and looking at the stories people tell about themselves.
Dr. Strauss offers multiple ways to connect, including video, phone, live chat and text messaging. He works with English-speaking clients in South Carolina and with international clients by online formats.
Getting started is done through a short matching questionnaire and scheduling tools. Clients who prefer clear steps and an experienced clinician for complex or long-standing issues may find his style helpful. He balances evidence-informed techniques with attention to each person’s history and goals.
How his approaches translate to online care
Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape how people relate now. It helps with trust, intimacy issues, abandonment concerns, and patterns that repeat in close relationships. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors. It is practical for anxiety, mood problems, sleep and managing difficult feelings. Client-Centered Therapy centers the conversation on the person’s needs and goals, giving space for their perspective while guiding change.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals and preferences, try specific techniques, and adjust the plan as progress is made. That means sessions may mix approaches over time to match emerging needs.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules and situations. Video is helpful for more in-depth sessions where seeing expressions matters. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or for a quick check-in. Live chat or text messaging can work for brief updates, coaching between sessions, or when typing feels more comfortable. These options make it easier to keep continuity of care and to fit therapy into a busy life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- 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
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 52 years
- Licensed
- South Carolina, Maryland
- Languages
- English
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