Dr. Allison Bethea
Practical, experienced therapy for everyday challenges
- Credentials
- MD
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed in
- Maryland
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Allison
Dr. Allison Bethea trained as a Doctor of Clinical Psychology and has practiced for two decades. She is an MD and has been licensed in Maryland since the early 1990s.
Her path began in adolescence and led to long experience using practical therapy methods parents can understand. She keeps work straightforward and focused on skills people can use right away. Allison prefers a collaborative style.
She builds on what people already do well and helps them stretch toward clearer routines and calmer days.
Background and approach
In sessions she uses tools from cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and solution-focused work. Those methods guide short-term skill building and clearer thinking around daily stresses. Her clinical interests include how physical health and brain function affect mood and behavior.
She brings that perspective to concerns such as anxiety, stress, depression, ADHD, sleep problems, and grief. She also has experience with LGBT matters, trauma and abuse, anger, self-esteem, and coping with life changes. She has worked with people facing developmental and neurological differences, including autism and intellectual disability, and with those managing chronic illness or visual impairment.
That background informs practical adjustments and realistic goals in therapy. Sessions may focus on symptom relief, better daily routines, and clearer communication. Parents who want straightforward guidance about behavioral strategies and stress management often find this approach useful.
The emphasis is on real steps a family can try between sessions.
Therapeutic approaches and online care that fit your life
Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple ways to notice thoughts and bodily sensations so strong emotions feel less overwhelming. It can help with anxiety, sleep problems, stress, and improving daily routines by adding short awareness practices.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on spotting unhelpful thinking patterns and testing new behaviors. It is practical and skill-based, often used for anxiety, depression, panic, and sleep difficulties by giving concrete tools to try between sessions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their goals, preferences, and daily demands. That shared planning helps tailor sessions to parenting challenges, health concerns, or attention-related issues.
Online sessions make it easier to fit therapy into busy family schedules. Video calls let people meet face to face from home, while phone, live chat, or text-based messaging provide more flexible options for brief check-ins or times when sitting for a full session is difficult. These formats support ongoing skill practice and consistent contact without extra travel.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Existential Therapy
Takes the larger questions seriously: meaning, choice, mortality, responsibility. Suited to periods when the difficulty is less a symptom than a sense that something has to change.
Mindfulness Therapy
Attention training: noticing thoughts and physical feelings as they arrive without being carried off by them. Much of it is practice you do yourself, so guidance over video or audio works much as it would in person.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Parenting issues
Also works with
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Visually impaired
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Maryland
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Allison
- Takes a few minutes to look through
- Nothing to set up just to read
- Stop at any point