About Nicole
Nicole Ballas is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 27 years of experience based in New York. She helps people who are feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, stress, depression, substance use, relationship worries, grief, or major life changes. Her approach is warm and down-to-earth, with an emphasis on listening and building trust from the first meeting.
Nicole keeps sessions focused and practical. She works with clients to set clear, manageable goals and looks for steps that can make life feel less chaotic.
Background and approach
She uses client-centered care to follow each person’s priorities, and solution-focused methods to find concrete ways forward. Her background includes long-term clinical work and more than two decades managing an inpatient psychiatry unit. That experience shaped how she thinks about crisis, safety, and steady progress.
Nicole draws on those years to offer steady support when emotions feel intense. Sessions with Nicole emphasize respect, empathy, and a bit of humor when it fits. She helps people recognize strengths they already have and to use those strengths to handle difficult moments.
She encourages small, realistic changes that add up over time. If someone is nervous about starting, Nicole aims to make the first steps simple. She listens first, helps set priorities, and works collaboratively on a plan that fits each person’s life and goals.
How client-centered and solution-focused work online can help
Client-Centered Therapy centers the person seeking help. Nicole follows each person’s lead, listens carefully, and helps them voice what matters most. This approach is useful when someone needs respect, validation, and a place to sort feelings about anxiety, grief, or relationship stress.Solution-Focused Therapy looks at what is already working and builds on it. Sessions are goal oriented and short-term focused, with practical steps to try between meetings. This can help people who want clear actions for sleep problems, anger, or coping with life changes.
Choosing the right approach is a team effort. Nicole will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has helped in the past. Together they will try methods that fit the person’s needs and adjust the plan over time.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules. Video calls are close to an in-person visit, phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited, and messaging lets people check in between sessions or use shorter touchpoints when life is hectic. These options aim to increase flexibility and make regular care more manageable.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 27 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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