Dr. Deborah Gioia-Hasick
Compassionate, practical therapy for families
- Credentials
- LCSW, MD, LCSW-C
- Experience
- 37 years
- Licensed in
- Maryland, California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Deborah
Dr. Deborah Gioia-Hasick uses a client-centered approach as the starting point for therapy. She emphasizes listening first, then helping people set goals they actually want to pursue.
Her style blends practical skills with mindfulness and cognitive tools to reduce anxiety, manage mood, and handle stressful life changes. Dr. Gioia-Hasick holds LCSW, MD, and LCSW-C credentials and has practiced in California for decades.
Her early work focused on teens and young adults.
Background and approach
She spent 18 years supporting young adults with serious mental illness and their families. That experience shaped how she thinks about symptoms, diagnosis, and family communication. She ran groups and multi-family meetings that taught symptom management and everyday coping skills.
After earning a PhD in 2000 she began teaching at the graduate level. She trains Master’s and PhD students in evidence-based treatments. In the clinic she uses cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction in a hands-on way.
She also trained in sexual health and sex therapy at UCLA and has provided couples counseling through that program. Motivational interviewing guides how she begins work with clients, helping them find what they want to change before moving into targeted techniques. More recently she has added training in climate-focused trauma and resiliency.
Her clinical interests include stress, parenting, family issues, trauma and grief, as well as mood disorders and workplace struggles. Her work reflects 37 years of experience and a focus on practical, teachable skills.
Online approaches that teach skills and build resilience
Dr. Gioia-Hasick often uses cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with practical exercises. CBT can help with anxiety, mood problems, panic, and sleep struggles by teaching clear, step-by-step skills.She also draws on dialectical behavior therapy techniques to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and improved interpersonal effectiveness. DBT skills are helpful when strong emotions, relationship conflicts, or impulsive behavior interfere with daily life.
Finding the right mix of methods is a collaborative process. The therapist begins by listening and using motivational interviewing to clarify what the client wants to change. Then she and the client pick techniques that match those goals and adjust the plan together as progress is made.
Online therapy makes this process flexible. Video calls allow for face-to-face skill teaching and role play. Phone sessions work when video is not possible. Live chat and text-based messaging let people check in between sessions and practice tools in real time. These options help fit therapy into busy family schedules and reach people across California who prefer remote care.
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.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Concrete skills for riding out strong emotion, tolerating distress, and handling relationships without things escalating. The skills are practised in daily life, so between-session support by message or phone fits naturally.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Eating disorders
- Self esteem
Also works with
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 37 years
- Licensed
- Maryland, California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Deborah
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point