Leslie Cates
Compassionate counselor focusing on practical change
- Credentials
- LPC
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed in
- Louisiana
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Leslie
Leslie Cates is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Louisiana who focuses on supporting people dealing with stress, anxiety, addiction, depression, grief, and life transitions. She speaks plainly and listens closely, helping clients set realistic goals and choose steps that fit their lives. Her style is warm and interactive, with an emphasis on respect and sensitivity for each person she meets.
Leslie draws on ten years of counseling experience and a Master of Arts in Counseling earned in New Orleans in 2016.
Background and approach
She uses a client-centered approach, meaning the person in therapy helps shape the goals and pace of work. Sessions tend to be strengths-based and solution-focused, so practical steps are emphasized alongside emotional processing. She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people notice and shift unhelpful thoughts.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is offered to build acceptance and purposeful action toward valued goals. Leslie also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills for managing intense emotions and on Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) ideas when addressing relationship concerns. Leslie has supported people coping with childhood trauma, abusive relationships, codependency, PTSD symptoms, sleeping problems, anger, and compassion fatigue.
She works with mood concerns including bipolar disorder and with substance use and co-occurring conditions. Her approach blends talk therapy with practical skills practice. For someone worried about big changes or hard feelings, Leslie offers a steady, nonjudgmental presence and concrete tools to try.
She encourages clients to take small, manageable steps and to build on strengths as they move toward healthier patterns.
How Leslie’s Approaches Translate to Online Care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without being ruled by them, and then take small actions toward what matters most. Practically, that can help with anxiety, depression, and major life changes by focusing on values and steady progress.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting unhelpful thinking patterns and testing new ways of thinking and behaving. Online CBT sessions often include homework and skills practice to change mood and daily habits.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) supplies specific tools for managing intense emotions and improving interpersonal effectiveness. Those skills are useful for regulating anger, stress, and relationship conflicts and can be taught and practiced during remote sessions.
Finding the right approach is a shared process. Leslie works collaboratively to match methods to a person’s goals, preferences, and the challenges they bring. She adapts techniques over time so the plan stays practical and useful.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. That variety lets people pick formats that fit work, caregiving, or energy levels. Sessions can be shorter check-ins or longer talks, and written messaging supports ongoing practice between live 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
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- 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
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Louisiana
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Leslie
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point