Aakanksha Punj , LPC

Aakanksha Punj is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) based in Colorado with six years of clinical experience. She draws on her background as a former Division I athlete and an immigrant to relate to people facing pressure, change, and high expectations. Her work often centers on stress, anxiety, addiction, trauma, self-esteem, and career concerns, with an additional focus on women's issues and related challenges.

She uses a warm, collaborative, and direct style in sessions. Aakanksha helps clients spot patterns that keep them stuck and works with them to process past experiences. She focuses on building emotional regulation skills and practical tools that fit daily life.

Clients can expect conversations that balance support with clear, goal-oriented steps. Sessions aim to reconnect people with their values and strengths while addressing immediate problems like overwhelm or addictive behaviors. The tone is straightforward and kind, with attention to real-world change rather than just symptom management.

Her background includes work with people dealing with adoption and foster care issues, attachment concerns, immigration-related stress, and multicultural challenges. She also brings experience with process addictions and substance use issues, and with young adult and veteran-related concerns.

Aakanksha tailors evidence-based techniques to each person’s needs. She helps people move from survival mode toward a steadier, more grounded way of living. Practical skill-building and collaborative planning are central to her approach.

How evidence-based approaches fit into online care

Aakanksha tailors evidence-based therapeutic techniques to each person she works with. One common approach focuses on building emotional regulation skills. This involves teaching simple practices to manage intense feelings, reduce reactivity, and improve day-to-day coping for anxiety or trauma-related symptoms.

Another frequently used method centers on identifying and changing unhelpful patterns. That work helps people notice routines or beliefs that keep them stuck and then try small, practical steps to shift those patterns. This approach is useful for stress, addiction behaviors, and repeating interpersonal problems.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with clients about their goals, try techniques that match their needs, and adjust the plan based on what helps. Clients and therapist decide together which tools to keep using or change over time.

Online sessions make this work more flexible. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and skill practice, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat is useful for brief check-ins, and text-based messaging supports ongoing reflections between appointments. These options help people fit therapy into busy schedules and keep momentum between sessions.