About Kellie
Kellie Gainey is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) based in New York who helps people manage stress and anxiety. She supports clients facing depression, trauma, self-esteem struggles, relationship and intimacy concerns, and life changes. Her approach is practical and straightforward.
She aims to make the first steps less overwhelming for someone seeking help. Kellie blends several approaches to match each person's needs. She uses cognitive behavioral techniques to notice and shift unhelpful thinking patterns.
Background and approach
She draws on dialectical behavior strategies to teach emotional regulation and distress tolerance skills. Client-centered methods shape the therapy room so conversations feel heard and respected. Mindfulness and creative expression are used when they help people connect with their experience and try new ways of coping.
Sessions focus on learning tools that can be used between meetings. She identifies as a queer clinician and works from kink/BDSM-positive, non-monogamy-positive, and fat/body-positive perspectives. That means she aims to understand and respect diverse relationship choices and body experiences without judgment.
Kellie emphasizes collaboration and clear goals in each session. With seven years of counseling experience, she has supported people through grief, addiction, parenting stress, career challenges, ADHD-related struggles, and compassion fatigue. Her work is aimed at building practical coping skills, resolving past hurts, and helping clients connect more clearly with themselves.
How these approaches shape online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify what matters most and take steps toward those values while learning to accept difficult thoughts and feelings. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and when life changes feel overwhelming.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing them with real-world experiments. This approach helps with anxiety, depression, and patterns that keep people stuck by teaching concrete strategies and homework between sessions.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) emphasizes emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and stronger communication. It can help when emotions feel intense or when people want clearer ways to handle conflict and crisis moments.
Finding the right mix is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to choose or combine approaches based on goals, preferences, and how someone responds in the first sessions. That conversation helps shape what happens next in therapy.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to offer flexibility. Video sessions allow face-to-face work and skill practice. Phone calls work well when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging suit quick reflections, check-ins between sessions, or people who prefer writing. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and try approaches in real-time.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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