Tonya Pleasant , MD, LCPC

Tonya Pleasant is a Maryland-based counselor with 25 years of experience helping people facing stress, anxiety, depression, and challenges tied to family and parenting. She also supports clients working on self-esteem, relationship and intimacy concerns, grief, addictions, sleep and eating issues, career questions, and life transitions. Tonya commonly addresses issues that affect women, including self-love, caregiver stress, and seasonal mood shifts.

She uses straightforward methods in sessions and focuses on practical change. Tonya draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients notice how thoughts influence feelings and actions. She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ideas to help people clarify values and take steps that matter to them.

Tonya listens closely and helps clients build coping tools and new habits. She emphasizes strengths and small, achievable steps that add up over time. Sessions include brainstorming strategies, practicing skills, and reviewing progress together.

She holds an MD and is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor - LCPC. Tonya’s training and long experience give her familiarity with many different life situations and coping styles. She works with adults, including young adults, to address the life issues listed above.

People who want clear techniques, steady support, and a focus on workable change will find her approach practical and down-to-earth. Conversations aim to be direct, respectful, and oriented toward the goals each person sets.

How evidence-based approaches translate to online care

Tonya frequently uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in her work. CBT focuses on identifying thought patterns and testing behaviors so clients can reduce unhelpful reactions and try new ways of coping; it can be useful for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and stress. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy emphasizes clarifying what matters to a person and taking small committed steps toward those values while learning to live with difficult feelings; this approach can help with caregiving stress, life transitions, and building self-love.

Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. Tonya will discuss options, hear what matters most to each client, and adjust methods based on goals and preferences. Together they decide whether to emphasize skills training, values work, or emotional processing and can shift course as needs change.

Online therapy offers flexibility across several formats. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and skills practice, phone sessions work well when bandwidth or camera use is limited, live chat supports shorter check-ins or written reflection, and text messaging helps maintain contact between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caregiving, and other responsibilities while still using the same therapeutic approaches.