Ondrea Hairston , LCSW

Ondrea Hairston is a licensed clinical social worker with twenty years of experience. She helps people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, trauma, or major life changes. She speaks plainly and aims to make the first steps feel manageable. Her style centers on listening and building trust. She uses a client-centered approach to understand each person's goals. Sessions focus on what matters to the client and on practical ways to reduce distress and improve relationships. Ondrea combines attachment-based ideas with cognitive behavioral techniques to spot unhelpful patterns and try new behaviors. She also uses mindfulness strategies to help people calm their minds and stay present during hard moments. These methods are applied in ways that fit the individual's life and values. Her background includes work across many social work settings and populations, and she completed a Master of Social Work at the University of Washington in 2005. She draws on two decades of front-line experience to support people through transitions like caregiving challenges, postpartum adjustment, and recovery from traumatic events. People working in first responder roles, veterans, and those facing multicultural or identity-related concerns are among the focus areas she addresses. Ondrea aims to create a nonjudgmental space where thoughts and feelings can be talked through and where small changes add up to meaningful improvement.

How her therapeutic approaches translate to online care

Ondrea often draws on attachment-focused work and cognitive behavioral techniques in sessions. Attachment-based work looks at how early relationship patterns show up now and aims to build safer ways of relating. It can help people who struggle with trust, closeness, or repeated relationship conflicts. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and then tests small changes to improve mood and functioning. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and coping with life stressors. Choosing the right approach is a shared process. She will talk with each person about goals, what has helped before, and what feels most comfortable. Together they decide which methods to try and make adjustments as progress is tracked. Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video works well for deeper conversations and when visual cues help the work. Phone sessions can fit into a busy day or when bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text messaging are handy for brief check-ins, between-session support, and shorter updates. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or travel schedules while keeping focus on the therapeutic goals.