About Stephen
Dr. Stephen Bentley welcomes people coping with stress, anxiety, grief, addiction, or major life changes. He writes in a straightforward way and focuses on practical steps.
His approach is grounded in building a working relationship and helping people take the first steps toward change. He has 32 years of experience in clinical settings. Over that time he has done individual and group therapy, crisis intervention, and hospital-based work.
He has also served as a director and supervisor of a practice and has twenty years with the same organization.
Background and approach
Clients often come with worries about depression, trauma, ADHD, relationship strain, parenting pressures, or career stress. He has experience supporting people affected by physical or emotional abuse and those living with chronic illness or addiction. He also works with concerns related to attachment, aging, adoption and foster care, and compassion fatigue.
His main style is person-centered therapy, which puts the client's needs first and builds change from a respectful relationship. He mixes cognitive behavioral techniques with elements of psychodynamic, emotionally-focused, and mindfulness work to match the problem at hand. In recent years he has used telehealth to continue care and make sessions more convenient.
He emphasizes respect, sensitivity, and compassion, and avoids stigmatizing labels while helping people set realistic goals and practice new ways of coping.
Approach and online therapy options
Dr. Bentley commonly uses cognitive behavioral therapy and attachment-based work. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and building practical skills to change behavior, which can help with anxiety, depression, and addiction. Attachment-based work looks at patterns in close relationships and helps people build safer, more reliable ways of relating to others, useful for intimacy, abandonment, or attachment concerns.Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to match methods to their goals, preferences, and the challenges they bring. That conversation can include trying a mix of techniques and adjusting the plan as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy fit a busy life. Video lets people read nonverbal cues and do longer therapy work. Phone sessions work well when a quieter setting or lower bandwidth is needed. Live chat and messaging are useful for short check-ins, brief skill practice, or when writing is easier for expressing thoughts. These options make it simpler to keep appointments around work, caregiving, or travel while still maintaining a steady therapeutic process.
Questions people ask
What concerns does he address?
What is his therapeutic style like?
How much clinical experience does he have?
What are his credentials and where is he located?
Can people who live outside the U.S. work with him?
Which session formats are offered?
How is cost handled for sessions?
What do I do to begin working together?
What this therapist works with
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- 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
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 32 years
- Licensed
- Kentucky
- Languages
- English
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