About Phil
Phil D'Agostino is a licensed clinical mental health counselor who helps people facing anxiety, stress, low mood, and relationship strain. He focuses on practical steps that bring relief. His style aims to get results people can use right away.
Phil began his career as a scientist and science educator, then moved into counseling through graduate studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He has nearly three decades of experience beginning in 1989 and has written books and training courses on emotional control and practical therapy methods.
Background and approach
His background includes work with mood concerns, panic, workplace stress, and intimacy-related issues. In sessions he emphasizes clear goals and short-term strategies. He favors methods associated with cognitive behavioral approaches that identify what is keeping a problem going, then create a plan to change it.
That plan can include mindfulness skills, acceptance-based tools, and techniques for managing intense emotions. He also draws on dialectical behavior ideas to help with emotional regulation and on existential thinking to help people find meaning when life feels difficult. Phil has used hypnosis in the past to address obsessive thinking and specific behavior changes such as smoking or overeating.
People who prefer a direct, action-oriented approach may find his work a good fit. He describes therapy as a partnership where the person in therapy does the work to regain control. His goal is to help people build skills so they can feel better and move forward in their lives.
Approaches that fit online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on helping people notice what matters to them and take small committed steps toward those values while learning to sit with difficult feelings. It often helps with anxiety, stress, and life-direction concerns. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT, looks at the thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going and teaches practical techniques to change them; it is commonly used for anxiety, panic, depression, and sleep problems. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, emphasizes skills for managing strong emotions, improving distress tolerance, and handling conflict more effectively.Choosing the right approach is a team effort. The therapist will discuss your goals, preferences, and daily life to decide which methods to try first. Over time the plan can be adjusted if something isn’t helping, and different tools can be combined to meet specific concerns.
Online therapy brings those approaches into flexible formats. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation for skill coaching and demonstrations. Phone sessions offer a simpler, lower-bandwidth option for focused check-ins. Live chat and text messaging work well for brief coping strategies, homework support, or quick check-ins between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, parenting, or travel demands while keeping sessions consistent and practical.
Questions people ask
What concerns does he help with?
What is his general therapy style?
How long has he been practicing?
What credentials and location are listed?
Are sessions offered in any other languages?
What session formats are available?
How are fees and billing handled?
How do I begin therapy with him?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Sleeping disorders
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 29 years
- Licensed
- North Carolina
- Languages
- English
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