About Polly
Polly Mortensen is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with more than 21 years in the field. She has worked in a range of settings, from outpatient rehabilitation programs to home-based therapy, and she brings that experience to one-on-one counseling. Polly focuses on helping people manage stress and anxiety while also addressing related struggles like depression, grief, and career concerns.
Her background includes work with people living with long-term mental health challenges, those receiving foster care services, and members of the LGBTQ community.
Background and approach
She also spent many years in vocational and rehabilitation counseling in New York and Florida, supporting people with disabilities as they pursued work and education goals. Polly uses practical, down-to-earth methods in sessions. She draws on Client-Centered Therapy to follow each person's lead, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to address unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns, and Mindfulness practices to teach present-moment skills.
She also integrates Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Motivational Interviewing where they fit. Sessions are collaborative and paced to what a person needs. Polly aims to build on strengths and teach concrete coping tools for emotion regulation, communication, and decision-making.
She works with concerns including relationship problems, parenting strain, trauma and abuse, ADHD, and compassion fatigue. People who choose Polly tend to want practical strategies and a compassionate listener. Her style is warm and steady, combining life experience with clinical methods to help clients make changes and meet their goals.
How Polly Uses Therapy Approaches Online
Polly frequently uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. CBT is useful for anxiety, depression, and stress because it breaks problems into small, manageable steps and teaches practical skills for daily life.She also draws on Mindfulness Therapy to teach simple attention and breathing practices. Mindfulness helps people reduce reactivity, calm strong emotions, and stay present during difficult moments. Client-Centered Therapy is another core element, which means sessions follow the person's priorities and pace while the therapist listens and reflects.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Polly will talk with each person about their goals and preferences, then suggest methods to try. The process is collaborative, with adjustments made if something doesn’t fit or needs to be adapted.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video calls work well for in-depth conversations and skills practice, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat is helpful for brief check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and varied daily routines.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 21 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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