Yuridia (Valerie) Polonsky
Calm, practical support for everyday family life
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed in
- Florida
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Format
- Online sessions
About Yuridia
Yuridia (Valerie) Polonsky is a licensed clinical social worker practicing in Florida. She has 15 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and parenting challenges. Valerie uses straightforward, practical methods so conversations stay focused and useful.
She speaks English and Spanish and offers sessions by video, phone, chat, or text. Valerie aims to make therapy feel approachable and relevant to everyday life. Sessions often center on specific goals such as improving sleep, handling grief, or coping with life changes.
Background and approach
She uses tools from cognitive behavioral therapy to spot thought patterns and from acceptance and commitment therapy to clarify values and next steps. Her work also addresses relationship and intimacy-related issues, communication problems, and areas like addiction or anger. Attachment-based ideas guide conversations about how past relationships shape present behavior.
Dialectical behavior therapy skills are added when emotion regulation and distress tolerance are needed. Parents looking for practical guidance around parenting and family concerns will find concrete strategies and coaching-style support when helpful. Valerie balances direct skill teaching with a client-centered stance that follows each person’s pace.
To begin, clients choose a subscription plan and schedule sessions according to Valerie’s availability. This approach supports ongoing work on things like self-esteem, career decisions, or managing ADHD symptoms while keeping therapy flexible and accessible.
Therapeutic approaches adapted for online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people name what matters to them and take small actions that align with those values while learning to live with difficult thoughts. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps identify unhelpful thinking and teaches practical exercises to change patterns that fuel anxiety or low mood. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at early relationship patterns to understand current reactions and improve communication and trust in relationships.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. Valerie will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their goals and preferences, and she adjusts the plan as needs change. This helps keep sessions focused on useful progress rather than fitting a single model.
Online sessions allow flexibility for busy family schedules and for people who prefer meeting from home. Options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging so clients can pick what works best for appointments and check-ins. These formats support ongoing practice of skills between sessions and make it easier to maintain steady progress while juggling daily responsibilities.
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.
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.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Self esteem
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- 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
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English, Spanish
Next step
Talk to Yuridia
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point