Patricia Riley
Supportive family-focused therapy with practical tools
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed in
- California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Patricia
Patricia Riley is a licensed clinical social worker who uses practical, skills-based therapy to address everyday family and parenting challenges. She favors clear methods that help people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and relationship or family tensions. Patricia keeps sessions direct and respectful while focusing on what matters most to each person.
With 20 years of experience in California, Patricia draws on approaches that teach concrete tools for coping and change.
Background and approach
She often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify unhelpful thoughts and habits and Motivational Interviewing to support readiness for change. These methods are used to tackle issues like parenting stress, caregiving strain, grief, substance concerns, and life transitions. Patricia aims to meet each person where they are.
She listens, asks practical questions, and helps create a clear plan you can use between meetings. Conversations are tailored to your situation so goals stay realistic and manageable. She also addresses a wide range of related concerns, including family of origin patterns, blended family dynamics, adoption and foster care matters, and end-of-life caregiving.
Other areas she helps with include body image, anger, intimacy issues, and career-related stress. People who choose Patricia can expect steady, goal-oriented work and encouragement to try small steps that add up to meaningful change. Her approach emphasizes both short-term coping and longer-term patterns that affect family life and parenting.
How Patricia’s Approaches Work Online
CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, focuses on spotting and changing unhelpful thoughts and routines. It breaks problems into small, manageable steps and is useful for anxiety, depression, stress, and parenting challenges. Motivational Interviewing centers on building a person’s own reasons to change. It uses respectful questions and reflection to strengthen commitment and resolve, which helps when someone is unsure about next steps. Finding the right approach is a shared process. Patricia works with each person to match methods to their goals, needs, and day-to-day life. She checks in and adjusts the plan as progress unfolds so the work feels useful and doable. Online options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. These choices let people fit sessions around family schedules, caregiving duties, or work. Remote sessions also make it easier to revisit strategies between meetings and to keep continuity during life transitions.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.
Motivational Interviewing
A way of working through mixed feelings about change without being pushed. The therapist helps you weigh things up and find your own reasons, which often makes a difficult decision feel less stuck.
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
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Multicultural concerns
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Patricia
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point