Colleen Overholt
Calm, practical support for families
- Credentials
- LMFT
- Experience
- 26 years
- Licensed in
- California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Colleen
Colleen Overholt is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 26 years of experience in California. She focuses on family and parenting concerns along with stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and related issues. Colleen aims to help parents and caregivers find practical ways to manage daily pressures and improve family interactions.
Her voice in session is steady and encouraging, and she asks direct questions to clarify what a family needs next.
Background and approach
She uses clear, hands-on methods rather than vague theory. Colleen often draws from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to spot and change unhelpful thinking. She also practices client-centered work that lets each person set the pace and topics for therapy.
Mindfulness tools are used to reduce reactivity and bring attention back to the present moment. Colleen has worked in many settings, including clinics, schools, and community programs. That variety shaped her into a flexible clinician who can meet families where they are.
Her background includes supervisory and program leadership roles that inform how she structures care and supports whole-family goals. In sessions she encourages people to name small goals and try concrete steps between meetings. She provides structure when needed and steps back when clients want more space.
Colleen emphasizes strengths so families can build on what already works rather than starting from scratch. She communicates plainly and expects collaboration. Parents who want straightforward guidance, practical tools, and a calm presence may find her approach helpful.
Colleen works in English and holds a California LMFT license (CA LMFT 32476).
Approaches that translate well to online family work
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and following the family's lead. The therapist creates an accepting space and supports whatever goals the family names, which helps parents set priorities and try manageable changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps identify and change patterns of thinking and behavior that cause stress. It is useful for anxiety, sleep problems, low mood, and parenting reactions because it offers simple exercises families can practice between sessions.Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will work collaboratively to decide which methods suit the family's needs, goals, and preferences. That planning can shift over time as progress is made or new concerns emerge, so choices are revisited together.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility for busy households. Video calls let families meet face to face from home, phone sessions can fit into tight schedules, and live chat or text messaging provide quick ways to check in between meetings. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent while juggling school, work, and caregiving responsibilities.
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.
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
What concerns does she address?
What is her general approach in sessions?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What are her credentials and location?
Which languages are supported in sessions?
What session formats are available?
How is cost handled for sessions?
How do I begin working with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 26 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Colleen
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point