Dr. Donald Strauss
Experienced clinician focusing on practical change
- Credentials
- MD, LCSW-C, LISW
- Experience
- 52 years
- Licensed in
- South Carolina, Maryland
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Donald
Dr. Donald Strauss brings more than five decades of clinical experience to his work. He trained as a medical doctor and also holds social work licenses - LCSW-C and LISW - and practices from South Carolina.
He focuses on a wide range of concerns, including mood problems, stress and anxiety, addiction, relationship and intimacy issues, grief, trauma, parenting and family matters. Sessions are offered in English and he accepts international clients.
Background and approach
He describes a practical, problem-solving style. He helps people notice patterns that no longer work and offers new ways to manage thoughts, feelings, and behavior. He tends to use proven methods such as cognitive behavioral techniques alongside approaches that look at attachment and life history.
The aim is clear: give tools that apply to everyday situations. In the room he mixes short-term skills with longer-term reflection. That can mean working on specific strategies for sleep, eating, or anger, then looking deeper at relationship patterns and past wounds that keep repeating.
He also has experience with chronic physical illness and complex medical conditions and how those realities affect mental health. He has helped professionals facing compassion fatigue and people coping with major life changes. His work emphasizes practical alternatives and step-by-step problem solving.
Treatment combines evidence-informed interventions with conversations that explore meaning and attachment needs. Dr. Strauss draws on clinical training and many years of practice to tailor care to each person’s situation.
He prefers collaboration - working with people to set goals, try strategies, and adjust as needed.
How his approaches translate to online care
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on early relationship patterns and how they affect current connections. It helps people understand why they react in certain ways with partners or close others and can be useful for intimacy and communication struggles.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, breaks problems into thoughts, feelings, and actions. It teaches practical skills to change unhelpful thinking and behavior, which helps with anxiety, depression, sleep, and eating concerns.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. He collaborates with each person to choose techniques that match their needs, goals, and preferences. That may mean trying short-term, skills-based work first and then adding deeper, attachment-focused exploration.
Online sessions make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives. Video calls let people use visual cues, while phone sessions remove screen needs. Live chat and text-based messaging offer brief, real-time support and flexible check-ins between longer sessions. These options allow a licensed professional to provide consistent care without needing travel, making it simpler to keep a therapy rhythm.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Looks at how early bonds shaped what you expect from closeness, and how that plays out now with a partner, a parent, or your own children.
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
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 52 years
- Licensed
- South Carolina, Maryland
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Donald
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point