Mark Sikora
Experienced LICSW focused on practical change
- Credentials
- LICSW
- Experience
- 40 years
- Licensed in
- Washington
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Mark
Mark Sikora is a licensed clinical social worker with decades of experience. He speaks plainly and focuses on helping people make real changes. He meets clients where they are and supports practical steps toward feeling better.
He frames work around what each person already knows about their life. He believes clients are the experts on their own story. Sessions look at strengths, patterns that cause pain, and small steps that reduce stress and increase well-being.
Background and approach
Over a long career Mark has worked with mood conditions like depression and bipolar disorder, anxiety and panic, and grief in its many forms. He also has experience with trauma and abuse, addiction, and stress from caregiving or major life changes. His background includes crisis and critical incident work and attention to how medical or chronic conditions affect daily life.
Therapy draws on evidence-based methods such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, and client-centered listening. He uses tools from Dialectical Behavior Therapy when emotion regulation skills are needed and integrates relationship-focused strategies when relevant. Sessions are straightforward and goal-oriented.
Mark helps people identify one or two practical changes to try between meetings. He supports progress with a steady, respectful presence and focuses on what works in day-to-day life.
Therapeutic approaches for online work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and slowly move toward what matters to them. It focuses on values and small committed actions rather than fighting every uncomfortable feeling. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy breaks problems into thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful patterns. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and stress when clear steps are needed. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and respect, giving people space to tell their story and find their own solutions in a supportive setting.Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to see which methods fit their goals, preferences, and life situation. That decision can shift over time as needs change, and techniques from different approaches may be combined.
Online sessions are offered by video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and to keep work going during moves or life changes. Many clients find that regular remote meetings help maintain momentum between appointments and allow steady progress toward daily goals.
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
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
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
- 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
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- HIV / AIDS
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 40 years
- Licensed
- Washington
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Mark
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point