About Donda
Donda Goodson is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Licensed Professional Counselor with more than three decades of experience. She meets people where they are and focuses on practical steps to reduce overwhelm. Parents reading on a phone will find short, clear explanations and a calm, steady approach.
She listens first and helps clients set specific goals. Sessions cover stress, anxiety, depression, grief, anger, addictions, bipolar concerns, ADHD, and the challenges that come with major life changes.
Background and approach
She also supports people coping with chronic illness, adoption and foster care issues, and first responder stress. Donda trained at Auburn University and earned a master’s degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Rehabilitation Counseling. Her work spans mental health agencies and independent practice, and she has experience with people from early childhood into later adulthood.
In sessions she uses client-centered methods to build trust and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to change unhelpful thinking and behavior. Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ideas may be woven in to help with emotion regulation and values-based choices. Her style is straightforward and practical.
She helps clients create small, manageable steps they can use between sessions. The focus is on solutions that fit each person’s life and goals.
How her approaches translate to online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people clarify what matters to them and take small steps toward those values while learning to accept difficult feelings. It can be useful for anxiety, depression, and coping with life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) targets thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going by practicing new ways of thinking and acting; it often helps with anxiety, depression, and anger. Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple attention and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and build steady focus, which can ease stress and emotional overwhelm.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist discusses goals and preferences during early sessions and adapts methods to fit what the client needs. This is a collaborative process so clients help choose techniques that feel useful and realistic for their day-to-day life.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which offer flexibility for different situations. Video calls let the therapist and client work face to face when that helps learning new skills. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in fits the day. Live chat and messaging provide quick access between sessions for brief updates, homework, or to practice skills without needing to be on camera.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 32 years
- Licensed
- Alabama, Florida, Virginia
- Languages
- English
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