Carolyn Hollingshead
Compassionate social worker for family and parenting
- Credentials
- LCSW, LISW-CP
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed in
- Utah, South Carolina, North Carolina
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Carolyn
Carolyn Hollingshead is a licensed clinical social worker who focuses on family and parenting concerns along with a wide range of related issues. She brings 22 years of social work experience to sessions and speaks English. Her practice addresses stress, anxiety, depression, grief, addictions, parenting, eating issues, chronic pain, trauma and other life transitions.
She uses straightforward, practical conversation to help families and individuals find clearer ways forward. Sessions often include techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to shift unhelpful patterns.
Background and approach
Mindfulness and client-centered styles are woven in to support greater self-awareness and calm. Carolyn trained first as a Registered Dietitian and holds a PhD in Nutrition, which informs her work with eating issues and medical concerns. She also maintains social work licensure as an LCSW and an LISW-CP.
That clinical and health background shapes a holistic view of clients’ needs. Her approach balances insight and skills. She helps people notice what gets in the way, try new ways of responding, and practice small changes at home.
She is comfortable addressing family of origin patterns, blended family dynamics, end-of-life matters, and caregiving stress. Carolyn integrates practical tools and reflective work. Parents and caregivers can expect clear strategies for communication, coping, and managing emotions.
The style is calm, direct, and collaborative, with attention to each person’s goals.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on noticing thoughts and making values-based choices. It helps people move toward what matters most even when hard feelings remain. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at the connection between thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful patterns. A client-centered approach emphasizes listening deeply and shaping goals around the person’s priorities, which can help build trust and clearer direction.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person or family about needs and goals and then choose methods together. Sessions can combine approaches so that tools match what the client wants to change and what feels comfortable.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy families. Video calls provide face-to-face connection from home, phone sessions work when video isn’t possible, and live chat or text-based messaging help maintain momentum between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy into daily life and to practice new skills in real-world moments.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
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.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed
- Utah, South Carolina, North Carolina
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Carolyn
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point