Dr. Stephen Bentley
Experienced counselor focused on practical change
- Credentials
- LPCC
- Experience
- 32 years
- Licensed in
- Kentucky
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Stephen
Dr. Stephen Bentley greets people who are juggling stress, life changes, and heavy emotions. He offers a steady, respectful presence and focuses on building a practical working relationship.
He keeps language simple and aims to make therapy feel usable for everyday life. He has 32 years of clinical experience and holds an LPCC - Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. Much of his work has included crisis intervention, hospital-based group and individual therapy, and leadership roles such as director and supervisor of a practice for over ten years.
Background and approach
He has also spent two decades with the same organization in addition to other settings. In sessions he emphasizes a person-centered stance. That means he listens first and tailors help to what each person actually needs.
He blends cognitive-behavioral tools with attachment-aware and emotionally-focused methods when those approaches fit the problem at hand. Dr. Bentley has supported people dealing with anxiety, depression, addiction, trauma, grief, ADHD, and other emotional and behavioral struggles.
He has worked with concerns related to parenting, relationships, aging, chronic illness, adoption and foster care, and compassion fatigue among many others. He started using telehealth more during the COVID-19 period and finds remote formats useful for people with tight schedules or who prefer not to come into an office.
He describes his role as an agent of change and aims to walk alongside clients as they make practical steps toward feeling better.
Therapeutic approaches and online care that fit your life
Dr. Bentley commonly uses cognitive-behavioral therapy and attachment-based ideas in his work. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and shifting behaviors to reduce distress and improve daily functioning. Attachment-based work looks at how early relationships shape current patterns and helps people build more supported ways of connecting and coping.He also draws on emotionally-focused techniques that help people tune into their feelings and communicate them more clearly. These methods are practical and aim to change how someone responds in relationships and stressful situations. Choosing the right mix of approaches is collaborative - he listens to goals and preferences, tests what helps, and adjusts the plan together with the client.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules, to connect from different locations, and to continue work between sessions. The therapist and client decide which format suits the work and shift as needed to keep progress moving forward.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Looks at how early bonds shaped what you expect from closeness, and how that plays out now with a partner, a parent, or your own children.
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
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 32 years
- Licensed
- Kentucky
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Stephen
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point