Heidi Strater
Compassionate help for complex mood and life challenges
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed in
- Florida
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Heidi
Heidi Strater is a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of experience helping adults manage mood and stress. She practices in Florida and focuses on common but heavy problems like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, addiction, and grief. Her work often includes support for people facing life changes and those caring for others.
In sessions she keeps language simple and practical. Heidi listens first, then helps people set clear, doable goals.
Background and approach
She mixes hands-on strategies with talk therapy so people leave with tools they can use day to day. Her approach aims to lower overwhelm and improve coping. Heidi has substantial experience supporting caregivers and older adults facing health or life transitions.
She offers help for issues tied to chronic illness, caregiving stress, adoption and foster care questions, and problems that come with aging. She also addresses family concerns like communication problems, separation, and codependency. Her skill set includes methods that teach concrete skills for mood and behavior change.
She works with clients on substance and alcohol problems, control issues, and recovery from shame or guilt. First responder stress and co-occurring conditions are also part of her practice. Heidi blends client-centered listening with evidence-based techniques such as cognitive behavioral approaches, dialectical behavior tools, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing.
She aims to be a steady collaborator who helps people find what actually works for their everyday lives.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online sessions
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and building a trusting relationship. In practice this means the therapist follows the person's concerns, offers reflection, and helps clients decide what feels most important to work on. It is useful for people who need a calm space to sort through feelings and priorities.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, teaches practical skills to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. Sessions typically include clear homework, step-by-step strategies, and tools to interrupt low mood or anxiety. CBT works well for depression, anxiety, and many everyday problems that affect mood.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Heidi will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn't helped before. She adapts methods so therapy fits the client's life and changes as progress is made.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy schedules and for people who prefer remote sessions. Video calls let conversations feel face to face, phone sessions make access simple, and live chat or text-based messaging can support short check-ins or skill practice between meetings. These options help people stay consistent with care while balancing work, caregiving, and other obligations.
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
Also works with
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Heidi
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point