Claudia Richards

Claudia Richards is a licensed clinical social worker with 30 years of experience helping people handle intense feelings and stressful life moments. She supports individuals facing anger, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, addiction concerns, and major life changes in the District of Columbia.

She keeps sessions straightforward and focused on what matters now. Claudia uses plain talk to help people understand patterns, set realistic goals, and try new ways of responding when emotions run high. She aims to strengthen self-worth and build practical coping skills that fit daily life.

Her work draws on several therapeutic styles that emphasize collaboration and skill building. Claudia blends client-centered techniques with cognitive behavioral tools and mindfulness practices to help people shift unhelpful thoughts and reactions. She also uses elements from dialectical behavior therapy and emotionally focused approaches when emotion regulation and relationships are central concerns.

Claudia brings a long history of supporting clients through adoption and foster care issues, attachment and abandonment wounds, blended family challenges, and the stresses that follow natural or human-caused disasters. She has worked with people affected by substance issues, infidelity, grief, and career-related strain.

Sessions are conducted in English and she holds a DC LICSW, which stands for Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker. Prospective clients should confirm current session options before booking and can use the site process to begin a match and schedule time.

Approaches that translate to online work

Client-centered work puts the client's needs and goals at the center. In practice this means the therapist listens closely, reflects what she hears, and helps shape sessions around what matters most to the person. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying and changing patterns of thinking and behavior that keep problems going, which is useful for anxiety, depression, and anger. Dialectical behavior therapy, DBT, teaches concrete skills for managing intense emotions and improving interpersonal situations, which helps when strong reactions cause problems.

Finding the right approach is a shared process. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, try approaches that match those goals, and adjust methods based on what is helpful. Decisions about techniques and pacing happen together over several sessions.

Confirm current session options before booking, as formats are not listed here. Online therapy can make it easier to fit appointments around work, caregiving, or school by reducing travel time and allowing sessions from different locations. It can also allow shorter check-ins or phone-based conversations when a full video session is not ideal. Licensed professionals aim to tailor session length and rhythm to fit a client's life while focusing on skills that carry into everyday routines.