Dr. Kristi Hottenstein
Compassionate counseling with practical skills
- Credentials
- LPC, LPCC
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed in
- Michigan, Texas, Arizona
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Kristi
Dr. Kristi Hottenstein is a licensed professional counselor with two decades of clinical experience. She holds a doctorate in higher education administration and a master’s degree in counseling.
Dr. Hottenstein practices in Michigan and brings practical, down-to-earth support to people facing life’s challenges. Her style is straightforward and flexible.
She adapts techniques to each person rather than using a single method for everyone. Sessions emphasize self-awareness and practical steps that fit everyday life.
Background and approach
Dr. Hottenstein also offers coaching related to college selection when that fits a person’s goals. She trained in counseling and higher education, and she runs a independent practice called Compass Counseling & Coaching, PLLC.
She has been licensed in Michigan since 2009 and holds LPC and LPCC credentials. Her professional involvement includes service with the Michigan Mental Health Counselors Association. Clinically she draws from several approaches to match what a person needs in the room.
That can include strategies to manage stress, anxiety, or mood concerns, tools for improving communication, and methods for coping with major life changes. The focus is on practical skills and clearer understanding of personal choices. People come to Dr.
Hottenstein for a wide range of concerns including relationships, parenting challenges, grief, work stress, and issues with sleep or eating. She aims to create a plan that fits each person’s situation and goals.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, then take steps toward what matters. It is useful for stress, anxiety, and coping with life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors, which can help with depression, anxiety, sleep, and eating concerns. Client-Centered Therapy centers conversations on the person’s experience, offering empathy and support while the client guides the pace and topics of work.Choosing the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. Together they decide which techniques to try and adjust them as progress is made, keeping the work collaborative and practical.
Online therapy offers flexibility for people with busy lives. Video calls let sessions feel like a face-to-face meeting, while phone, live chat, and text options give alternatives when schedules or comfort levels differ. These formats make it easier to fit regular sessions into everyday life and to use therapy tools between meetings.
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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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- 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
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- 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
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Michigan, Texas, Arizona, California, New Jersey, Virginia
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Kristi
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point