Kristel Avilus
Compassionate, practical therapy for life changes
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed in
- Florida
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Kristel
Kristel Avilus is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with seven years of practical experience. She greets people with a warm, interactive style and focuses on helping them move forward from painful events and stuck patterns. She speaks plainly and works to create a respectful, compassionate space for people to talk through their concerns.
Kristel uses methods drawn from cognitive behavioral therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, emotionally-focused therapy, and client-centered approaches.
Background and approach
She adapts conversations and plans to each person’s needs rather than using one-size-fits-all techniques. Sessions aim to build coping skills, reduce symptoms, and clarify what clients want to change. Her background includes supporting people with depression, anxiety, relationship struggles, parenting difficulties, career challenges, OCD, and ADHD.
She has also supported survivors of physical, sexual, and emotional trauma and helps with grief, addiction-related concerns, and intimacy issues. Kristel pays attention to both current problems and how past experiences shape present reactions. In practice she avoids labels that shame and centers respect and sensitivity.
Clients can expect practical strategies alongside space to process feelings. The work may include learning new skills, changing unhelpful thoughts, and trying small experiments between sessions. Kristel practices in Florida as an LCSW and offers services in English.
International clients may also connect for online sessions. She encourages people who are ready to take a next step to reach out and begin a conversation about goals and options.
Therapeutic approaches for online care
Kristel draws from cognitive behavioral therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to guide online work. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact and teaches practical tools to change unhelpful patterns. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on clarifying personal values, accepting difficult feelings without getting stuck, and taking committed action toward meaningful goals.Choosing the right approach is part of the process. She will work collaboratively to decide which methods fit best based on goals, preferences, and how symptoms show up in daily life. That collaborative planning can be adjusted as progress is made and needs change.
Online sessions are offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to increase flexibility. These formats let people attend from different locations and fit therapy into busy schedules. The varied options also make it easier to use brief skill coaching, check-ins between sessions, or longer weekly meetings depending on what works for the person.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
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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How much clinical experience does she have?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Kristel
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point