About Joni
Joni De Groot is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 35 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, relationship strains, and parenting challenges. She writes plainly and listens closely to understand how each person experiences themselves and others. Joni frames therapy as a cooperative process where clients set goals and try practical steps to feel better sooner.
Her sessions combine client-centered care with cognitive behavioral tools and a mindfulness focus.
Background and approach
She also draws on Jungian ideas about patterns and symbols to help people see recurring themes in their lives. This blend supports clearer thinking, calmer reactions, and better day-to-day coping. Joni has worked across many settings including outpatient clinics, schools, residential care, and sub-acute facilities.
Her background includes roles as an intake coordinator, case manager, and member of multidisciplinary teams with psychiatrists and social service agencies. That variety shaped a flexible, pragmatic way of working with diverse concerns. In sessions she offers concrete strategies for stress and anxiety, communication skills for relationships, and guidance for parenting and family challenges.
She also addresses issues like abandonment, attachment, body image, caregiving strain, and coping after disasters. Her goal is to help people build skills that ease symptoms and improve daily functioning. Joni provides therapy online and by phone, and she focuses on creating a calm, nonjudgmental space.
She encourages small, measurable steps toward change and partners with clients on the plan they want to follow.
Approaches that guide online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and understanding each person's experience. The therapist follows the client's lead and helps identify goals while offering support and validation. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, teaches practical skills to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which is useful for anxiety, stress, and mood concerns. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, includes tools for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and clearer communication, helping when emotions feel overwhelming.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and what has or hasn't helped before. Together they decide which strategies to try first and adjust the plan as progress is made, making the process collaborative and flexible.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different needs. Video is good for face-to-face conversation and teaching skills. Phone calls work well when bandwidth is limited or you want a simpler check-in. Live chat and text messaging can be useful for brief updates, skill practice, or when typing feels easier than speaking. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent around work, school, or caregiving responsibilities.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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