Lisa McCarton , LCSW

Lisa McCarton is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 20 years of experience practicing in Virginia. She helps people handle stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar mood shifts, and the ups and downs of parenting and career pressure. She also supports those coping with grief, trauma and abuse, ADHD, anger, and relationship struggles. Sessions are offered in English and Spanish. Her work is straightforward and goal focused. Lisa uses practical tools to change unhelpful thinking and behaviors, and to build better day-to-day coping. She leans on client-centered work that follows each person's pace and priorities. Early in her career she worked in residential treatment supporting children who had experienced neglect and abuse, and she provided both therapy and case management. That background shaped her interest in attachment issues, abandonment, adoption and foster care, and healing after domestic violence or trauma. Over two decades she has worked with a wide range of concerns including impulsivity, eating and food-related issues, communication problems, dissociation, and blended family challenges. Her practice also addresses control and dependent personality patterns and issues tied to autism and Asperger syndrome. In sessions she combines Attachment-Based Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing, Existential ideas, and client-centered listening. People can expect clear steps, collaborative goal-setting, and practical strategies to use between sessions.

Therapeutic approaches and how they fit online

Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early relationships shape present patterns. In practice this means looking at how people relate, where worry or mistrust comes from, and building more dependable ways of connecting and coping. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps people notice thought patterns that lead to distress and replace them with more helpful actions and problem solving. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and anger by giving concrete skills to try between sessions. Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative way to explore ambivalence and strengthen motivation for change, which can work well for career shifts, coping with health concerns, or managing impulsive behaviors.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will listen, set clear goals with the client, and adjust methods based on needs and preferences. Clients and the therapist decide together which strategies to focus on and how fast to move.

Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation when a longer check-in is needed. Phone sessions can be a helpful option when bandwidth is limited or a client prefers not to use video. Live chat and text-based messaging make brief check-ins and step-by-step coaching possible between longer sessions, which can fit busy schedules and provide ongoing support.