Miriam Matthews , LICSW, LCSW

Miriam Matthews is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker - LICSW and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker - LCSW practicing in Virginia. She focuses on anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, and relationship concerns. Miriam brings a calm, direct style and aims to help people find clear next steps when life feels overwhelming.

She draws on ten years of experience across behavioral health, hospice care, geriatric support, Child Protective Services, and work with maternal health programs. That background means she is used to handling grief, caregiver stress, and the practical needs that come with emotional strain. She also supports people coping with loneliness, shame, and questions of life purpose.

Miriam uses a client-centered stance in sessions, listening first to what matters most to the person in front of her. She combines that with solution-focused techniques to set concrete goals and with cognitive behavioral ideas to spot habits of thought that keep problems going.

In a typical session she helps clients sort priorities, test small changes, and practice skills they can use between meetings. She talks through communication difficulties, intimacy-related worries, and the effects of past sexual assault or abuse in a steady, step-by-step way.

She works with issues that often affect women, including the emotional fallout from discrimination, abandonment, and caregiving burden. Sessions are offered in English and take place via remote formats that fit different schedules and needs.

Approaches you can use in online sessions

Client-centered therapy starts with the person’s own goals and priorities, with the therapist listening closely and tailoring support to what matters most. It helps when someone needs validation, clearer direction, and steady support for difficult feelings.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It uses simple exercises to test unhelpful thinking patterns and try new responses, which can ease anxiety and depression over time.

Solution-focused therapy concentrates on building practical steps toward a desired outcome. Sessions often identify small, doable changes and track progress week to week, which can be especially helpful for coping with life changes and relationship problems.

Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about their goals, try techniques that fit those aims, and adjust plans based on what helps. That collaborative process makes it easier to find methods that feel useful and realistic.

Online therapy lets people connect by video, by phone, or through live chat and text-based messaging. Video is useful for face-to-face conversation and teaching skills, phone can be quicker when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging can fit short check-ins or people who prefer writing. These options make scheduling easier and help therapy fit into busy lives.