Christy Alten , LPC-MH, LMHC

Christy Alten brings over three decades of clinical experience to her work. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor-Mental Health (LPC-MH) and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Iowa. She focuses on helping people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, addictions, depression, grief, and life transitions. She also supports clients facing parenting strain, career changes, low self-esteem, and compassion fatigue.

Christy favors straightforward, calm conversation. She mixes practical techniques with attention to meaning and values. Sessions often include skill practice, thought work, and exploring what matters most to the person. She describes her approach as rooted in client-centered care with tools from cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy.

Many clients come for help with family conflict, feelings of emptiness, codependency, or problems around forgiveness and shame. She also works with people managing bipolar concerns, substance use, sleep problems, anger, and the fallout from divorce or separation. Christy names life purpose and communication difficulties as common topics she addresses.

Christy has long experience offering supervision and mentoring to other clinicians. She brings that same steady, direct style to therapy sessions. She aims to help clients set clear goals, practice new skills, and notice changes that matter in daily life.

Christy identifies as a Christian counselor and integrates spiritual and existential perspectives when clients want that included. She emphasizes collaboration and a plan that fits each person's needs, with room to adjust as work proceeds.

How therapeutic methods translate to online care

Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and following what matters to the person. Online sessions using this approach prioritize the client's goals, pacing, and choices while offering steady support and reflection. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect, and teaches concrete skills to change unhelpful patterns; online work often uses short exercises, worksheets, and homework between sessions to build those skills. Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, teaches emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness skills that can be practiced during and between remote meetings.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful, then tailor methods to fit. That collaborative process makes it easier to adjust strategies if something is not helping.

Online therapy with Christy can use video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different needs. Video works well for deeper conversation and skill demonstrations. Phone sessions can be easier when video is not possible or bandwidth is low. Live chat and text messaging allow quick check-ins, brief skill coaching, or ongoing support between sessions. These options provide flexibility for scheduling, shorter check-ins, and ways to keep therapy going when life is busy.