About Stefanie
Stefanie Fernandez is a licensed clinical social worker with more than 25 years of experience. She helps adults who are dealing with anxiety, stress, depression, grief, trauma, relationship problems, and life transitions. Her approach is calm and straightforward, focused on helping people manage symptoms and find practical ways to move forward.
She prefers individual therapy and works together with each person to set clear, achievable goals. Sessions emphasize building self-awareness, practicing mindfulness, and strengthening the skills needed to cope with daily challenges.
Background and approach
Stefanie adjusts the techniques she uses to match a person’s needs rather than following a single rigid method. Her clinical toolkit includes acceptance and commitment ideas, client-centered listening, cognitive behavior strategies, emotionally focused techniques, and reflections drawn from existential thinking. Stefanie uses these methods to help people notice patterns, shift unhelpful thinking, and reconnect with personal values.
Based in New York, she brings long experience with a wide range of concerns including family-of-origin issues, caregiver stress, chronic illness, body image, and workplace or career-related strain. She also supports people facing grief, bipolar-related concerns, eating struggles, and changes after separation. In sessions she aims for clear communication and step-by-step progress.
People who prefer a practical, compassionate style that balances emotion-focused work with concrete skills often find this approach helpful.
Therapeutic approaches for online work and what to expect
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that reflect their values. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and coping with life changes by encouraging practical steps alongside acceptance of difficult feelings.Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and building a trusting relationship. In this style the therapist follows the person’s lead, reflects what’s happening, and supports self-directed insight and growth for concerns like low self-esteem, relationship strain, or grief.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns. It offers concrete strategies for managing symptoms of anxiety and depression and for building skills to handle everyday stressors.
Finding the right approach is a team effort. The therapist will talk with the client about goals and preferences, try methods that fit, and adjust those methods over time. This collaborative process helps match techniques to what the person actually needs and wants.
Online therapy formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation and can mirror an office visit. Phone sessions may be easier when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and messaging are helpful for shorter check-ins, quick skill practice, or when fitting therapy into a busy day. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or travel schedules while keeping the focus on progress and usable skills.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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