Diane Critchlow , LMHC

Diane Critchlow is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) with twelve years of practice in Washington. She works in a warm, interactive, and nonjudgmental way. Diane focuses on helping people who feel stuck by anxiety, depression, and stress. She also supports those facing relationship or family challenges and career changes, with attention to women’s issues when relevant.

Diane uses proven talk-based approaches to help people manage difficult feelings and make practical changes. She often brings in cognitive behavioral techniques to shift unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. Attachment-based ideas help uncover how early relationships shape current patterns and offers ways to build healthier connections.

Sessions tend to be collaborative and paced to each person’s needs. Diane helps clients set realistic goals, practice new skills, and solve everyday problems. She also addresses trauma and emotional abuse with sensitivity to how past experiences affect present life.

People come to Diane for a range of concerns including self-esteem, body image, codependency, abandonment issues, communication problems, and compassion fatigue. She also works with adoption and foster care questions, blended family stress, divorce and separation, and family of origin issues.

Diane describes her role as a guide who walks alongside people as they change. She emphasizes small, steady steps toward clearer choices and healthier responses. Her practice aims to help people feel more capable, connected, and able to move forward.

Approaches that guide online sessions

Diane often uses client-centered work that focuses on the person’s experience in the moment. This approach invites people to describe what matters to them and shapes sessions around those priorities. Client-centered work helps with relationship concerns, self-esteem, and feeling heard.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is another tool she uses to change thoughts and behaviors that maintain anxiety or depression. CBT breaks problems into small steps and teaches practical coping skills for daily life. Attachment-based ideas are also part of her work, helping people see how early bonds affect current relationship patterns and offering ways to build safer, more connected interactions.

Finding the right approach is a team effort. Diane will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most helpful. Together they try methods and adjust the plan based on what works in real sessions.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let people meet visually for full conversations. Phone sessions require less bandwidth and can fit a break at work. Live chat and text-based messaging support shorter check-ins, ongoing reflection, or when writing feels easier than speaking. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and maintain regular contact with licensed professionals.