Kathleen McCarthy
Trauma-informed care with practical tools
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 34 years
- Licensed in
- Wisconsin
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Kathleen
Kathleen McCarthy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who brings 34 years of experience to her work. She practices in Wisconsin and blends practical techniques with attention to how thoughts, body, and spirit connect. Her background includes training in trauma-focused methods and hypnotherapy.
She speaks English and accepts international clients. Kathleen often uses eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR, when addressing traumatic memories and their impact on daily life.
Background and approach
She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice and shift unhelpful thinking patterns. Hypnotherapy and mindfulness tools are part of her toolbox to support stress reduction and focus. Her approach is straightforward and goal-minded.
Sessions tend to look at behaviors and thoughts that get in the way of what a person wants. She combines short-term problem solving with deeper trauma work as needed. With a long clinical history, Kathleen has worked across many concerns including anxiety, depression, grief, addiction, parenting challenges, and trauma.
She is also experienced with issues like fertility-related stress, post-traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue. That range informs flexible care tailored to a person’s situation. Practical matters are handled through a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
Session formats include video calls, phone, live chat, and text-based messaging. To begin, the site’s Start Therapy button leads to a short matching questionnaire and scheduling options.
How EMDR, CBT, and Hypnotherapy work online
EMDR helps process painful memories by guiding attention while the brain revisits distressing events; it can reduce the intensity of traumatic reactions and make memories feel less disruptive. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors through clear, practical exercises that target day-to-day problems. Hypnotherapy uses guided relaxation and focused attention to help people access motivation and make behavioral changes related to stress, habits, or coping skills.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and symptoms and then recommend methods that fit. That decision is collaborative and can change as progress is made or new needs appear.
Online sessions offer several practical benefits. Video calls allow for face-to-face conversation when travel is difficult. Phone sessions, live chat, and text messaging provide extra flexibility for busy schedules or when short check-ins are helpful. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent while fitting it into everyday life.
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.
EMDR
A structured protocol used with distressing memories, pairing recall with guided attention tasks. Some therapists adapt it for video sessions; whether that fits is worth asking about directly.
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
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 34 years
- Licensed
- Wisconsin
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Kathleen
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point