Stephanie Sarafinas
Calm, practical guidance for life transitions
- Credentials
- LPC
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed in
- Pennsylvania
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Stephanie
Stephanie Sarafinas is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Pennsylvania who focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and major life changes. She works with parents and young adults among others, and offers practical support for parenting concerns, career shifts, sleep problems, and relationship or family tensions.
Her style is collaborative and matter-of-fact, aimed at making small, usable changes that fit daily life. With 25 years of experience, Stephanie draws on several evidence-based approaches to tailor care to each person.
Background and approach
She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify unhelpful thinking and build new habits. Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills are used for emotion regulation and coping when feelings run high. Mindfulness and solution-focused techniques help people notice progress and set clear next steps.
Sessions tend to be straightforward and goal-oriented. Stephanie mixes skill teaching, short experiments between sessions, and coaching on communication and boundary setting. She often supports people dealing with trauma, grief, caregiving strain, chronic pain or health challenges, and questions about life purpose.
She also addresses concerns related to ADHD, autism spectrum experiences, codependency, and compassion fatigue. Work on shame, guilt, isolation, and jealousy is offered with a practical focus on daily routines and small behavior changes. Stephanie emphasizes collaboration and respect for personal pace.
She helps clients set realistic goals and checks in on what’s working and what needs adjusting. People who want clear tools and steady support may find her approach helpful.
How these approaches translate to online work
Stephanie commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people notice patterns of thought and behavior and try small changes that alter symptoms over time. CBT focuses on practical experiments and new ways of responding to stressful situations.She also uses Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and clearer communication. DBT offers concrete tools to reduce emotional overwhelm and handle conflict more calmly.
Finding the right approach is part of the therapy process. Stephanie works collaboratively to match methods to a client's goals, needs, and preferences. She checks in and adjusts the plan as progress is made and circumstances change.
Confirm the current session formats before booking so you know what options are offered. Online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, reduce travel time, and keep check-ins brief when needed. Licensed professionals can use these formats to focus on skill practice, communication coaching, and managing mood between appointments.
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.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Concrete skills for riding out strong emotion, tolerating distress, and handling relationships without things escalating. The skills are practised in daily life, so between-session support by message or phone fits naturally.
Mindfulness Therapy
Attention training: noticing thoughts and physical feelings as they arrive without being carried off by them. Much of it is practice you do yourself, so guidance over video or audio works much as it would in person.
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does Stephanie commonly address?
How would you describe her therapeutic style?
What kind of experience does she bring?
Where is she based and what are her credentials?
In which languages are sessions offered?
Can international clients work with her?
How does cost and billing work?
What are the first steps to begin therapy?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
Also works with
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Pennsylvania
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Stephanie
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point