About Wendy
Wendy Kesel is a licensed clinical social worker with 26 years of professional experience in New York. She helps people cope with stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar mood concerns, and life transitions. Wendy also supports those facing relationship and intimacy challenges, parenting strain, and issues connected to grief and trauma.
Her approach is warm and direct. She works to build an open space where clients can say what’s on their mind without feeling judged.
Background and approach
Conversations focus on concrete steps people can try between sessions. Wendy emphasizes practical skills alongside emotional reflection. Wendy uses several evidence-informed methods to guide work in therapy.
She draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people notice what matters to them and move toward those values. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used to identify and change unhelpful thinking patterns. Attachment-Based ideas shape work on relationships and connection.
People who reach out often want help managing ADHD, parenting stress, blended family dynamics, or career strain. She also addresses identity and LGBT concerns, adoption and foster care issues, and care-related caregiver stress. Sessions aim to be collaborative and goal-focused, with tools tailored to each person’s daily life.
Wendy meets people where they are and supports practical change over time. She helps set small, achievable goals and adjusts approaches as needs shift. The work moves at a person’s pace while staying anchored to real-world solutions.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people notice their thoughts and feelings without getting stuck, then choose actions that match their values. This approach can help with anxiety, stress, and life changes by shifting attention toward meaningful goals.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and offers practical techniques to change unhelpful patterns. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and managing mood symptoms. Attachment-Based Therapy examines how early and current relationships shape expectations and interactions, and it is often helpful for intimacy, relationship, and attachment concerns.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what has helped or not helped before. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust plans as progress or challenges emerge.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different needs and schedules. Video lets people read facial cues and have longer conversations. Phone can work when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat or messaging can be used for brief check-ins, skill practice, or when written reflection feels easier. These options make it simpler to keep therapy consistent around work, caregiving, or travel.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- 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)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- 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)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 26 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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