About Stephanie
Stephanie Clausen-Swenson is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a licensed professional clinical counselor in Minnesota. She has 15 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, grief, parenting challenges, and life transitions. She blends practical tools with conversation to help clients take small, manageable steps forward.
Her approach centers on relationships and attachment. She uses Attachment-Based ideas to understand how early bonds shape current patterns. She also draws on client-centered work to keep sessions focused on the person's goals and perspectives.
Background and approach
Stephanie uses cognitive behavioral techniques to identify unhelpful thoughts and try new behaviors. She incorporates emotionally-focused methods when working on relationships and strong feelings. She also brings existential themes into conversations about meaning and next steps.
In sessions she practices hands-on skills like deep breathing, guided imagery, and brief movement exercises. She may role-play communication and coach people through assertive responses. Her style aims to be collaborative and down-to-earth.
Stephanie has additional experience with adoption and foster care, attachment issues, autism and Asperger syndrome, blended family concerns, caregiver stress, chronic illness, fertility and fatherhood questions. She has also consulted for childcare providers and is pursuing doctoral work in infant and early childhood development.
How attachment and skills work translate to online therapy
Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early connections shape current relationships and responses. Online sessions can help identify recurring patterns and practice new ways of relating to partners, children, or oneself.Client-Centered Therapy focuses on the person's goals and perspective. The therapist listens closely and follows the client's lead to build understanding and clarify what matters most in life.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps people spot unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors. In online sessions this can mean coaching through real-time exercises, homework, and step-by-step practice between meetings.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs and goals. Together they will adjust techniques over time based on what feels most helpful.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls are useful for face-to-face conversation and demonstrations. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging are good for shorter check-ins, quick coaching, or when a written record of ideas is helpful. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy schedule and to practice skills between sessions.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Grief
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Minnesota
- Languages
- English
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