About Deborah
Deborah Sterling is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) based in California who helps people manage stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, and relationship concerns. She supports parents facing parenting challenges, people coping with grief, and those dealing with trauma or compassion fatigue. Her tone is straightforward and practical in sessions.
She trained at California State University, San Bernardino and earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work. Her early career focused on child welfare and foster care, and she spent many years working with children and families involved in the foster system.
Background and approach
That background shapes how she understands family problems and adoption or foster care issues. Deborah favors a supportive, client-centered style. She listens for strengths, then helps people set small, realistic goals.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ideas are woven into sessions to help change unhelpful thinking and behaviors. Sessions can include traditional talk therapy and solution-focused strategies that aim for practical steps. She draws on her experience with teens and adults to tailor approaches to each person’s needs.
Her work is direct and focused on usable tools. People who want concrete strategies for daily life, clearer communication in relationships, or help navigating big changes often respond well to this approach.
How Deborah’s Approaches Work Online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and understanding each person's experience. The therapist follows the person's lead and helps them make changes at their own pace, which suits concerns like self-esteem, relationship issues, and family stress.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts and behaviors affect feelings. It uses practical exercises and small experiments to reduce anxiety, depression, and ADHD-related struggles by building new habits and thinking patterns.
Solution-Focused Therapy targets immediate, achievable change. Sessions identify what the client wants to see happen and then map small steps toward that goal, which can be helpful for coping with life changes, parenting challenges, and problem solving.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with the client to decide which combination of methods fits their goals, needs, and preferences. That planning happens together and can shift as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video lets people work face to face from wherever they are. Phone calls use less bandwidth and can be easier on busy days. Live chat or text-based messages can suit quick check-ins, short problem-solving conversations, or times when writing feels more comfortable. These options make it easier to fit therapy into school, work, or caregiving schedules.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Self esteem
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family problems
- Grief
- LGBT
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Relationship issues
- Self-love
- Trauma and abuse
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 3 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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