Christina Cartagena , LPC

Christina Cartagena is a licensed professional counselor in South Carolina who helps people handle stress, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. She focuses on concerns like relationship and family problems, trauma and grief, parenting stress, and intimacy-related struggles. Christina aims to make therapy feel straightforward and useful for everyday life.

She uses practical methods that help clients notice patterns, find new ways to cope, and rebuild trust in themselves and others. Sessions are collaborative - the person and therapist set goals and try techniques together. Christina emphasizes clearer communication, emotion regulation skills, and stronger attachments where those are helpful.

Her work often addresses panic, mood symptoms, trouble sleeping, and impulsivity. Christina also supports people facing body image issues, caregiving burdens, financial stress, and isolation or loneliness. She brings attention to how attachment and past hurts can shape current reactions.

Christina draws on approaches such as client-centered work, cognitive behavioral strategies, dialectical behavior techniques, emotionally focused methods, and attachment-based ideas. These tools are used flexibly to match each person’s needs and pace. Therapy sessions explore thoughts, behaviors, and emotions and then practice small changes between meetings.

The tone of her practice is calm and practical. Christina encourages steady progress rather than quick fixes. She helps people build skills they can use outside of sessions to manage life changes and everyday stressors.

Approaches that guide online sessions

Attachment-based work focuses on how early bonds shape current relationships and emotional reactions. In online sessions this can help people understand patterns in closeness, trust, and conflict so they can try new ways of relating.

Client-centered therapy centers on active listening and the person’s own goals. The therapist offers empathy and support while the client guides the pace and focus, which works well for building self-understanding and confidence over time.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Christina collaborates with each person to choose methods that fit their needs, goals, and comfort with different techniques. That decision is revisited as progress is made so the plan stays useful.

Online formats make therapy easier to fit into busy lives. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction for skill practice and emotional work. Phone sessions can be a lower-bandwidth option for check-ins. Live chat or text-based messaging supports brief check-ins, mood tracking, and between-session coaching. Together these options offer flexibility for different schedules and situations while keeping the focus on meaningful change.