About Stuart
Stuart Riskin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 28 years of experience who helps people manage anxiety and stress. He takes a calm, down-to-earth approach and treats each person as the expert on their own life. Sessions focus on practical steps people can use between meetings.
He came to social work after a first career in the entertainment industry and years of personal reflection. That background shaped his ability to listen, ask clear questions, and offer straightforward tools.
Background and approach
He describes his style as supportive, respectful, and strength-based. In session he blends practical methods such as cognitive-behavioral techniques with client-centered listening and mindfulness practices. He also draws on emotionally-focused ideas and relationship work when needed.
This mix helps with anxiety, depression, addictive behaviors, and life transitions. People commonly bring concerns about grief, trauma, parenting strain, self-esteem, work stress, and ADHD. He also addresses relationship communication, codependency, commitment worries, and caregiver stress.
Conversations aim to identify small changes that lead to steadier mood and better daily coping. Stuart works with people across California and accepts international clients for online sessions. He offers phone, video, live chat, and text-based messaging formats.
To begin, a simple matching questionnaire is completed and appointments are scheduled according to availability.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Stuart often uses client-centered therapy to keep the focus on each person’s experience and goals, offering listening and reflection that helps people feel heard and understood. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is used to identify unhelpful thinking and develop practical skills to reduce anxiety and manage stress. Emotionally-focused ideas are added when relationship patterns or attachment concerns are part of the picture and when helping partners or individuals better understand emotional responses.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. He will collaborate with clients to choose methods that fit their goals, preferences, and life demands. That means checking in on what helps, adjusting techniques over time, and using a mix of listening, skill teaching, and mindfulness where it suits the person.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video lets people read facial cues and practice new skills in real time. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is low or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text messaging make brief check-ins and coaching-style support possible between longer sessions. These options help people fit therapy into busy days and different time zones.
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
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 28 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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