Nora O'Connor

Nora O'Connor is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in California with 15 years of experience. She focuses on practical, down-to-earth support for issues such as stress, anxiety, addiction recovery, LGBT concerns, anger, and building self-esteem. Nora aims to help people make steady changes they can keep in everyday life.

She uses cognitive behavioral techniques to spot thought patterns that keep problems going. She combines that with somatic awareness to help people notice how stress and emotion show up in the body. These methods are paired with trauma-informed thinking when past events affect current coping.

Nora often works on life transitions, career questions, and the strain that comes from caregiving or compassion fatigue. She also helps people address isolation, shame, codependency, and recovery-related challenges. Her practice includes attention to adoption and foster care issues and non-monogamous relationship concerns when they come up.

Sessions are focused on clear steps and real skills. Nora uses mindfulness and solution-focused strategies to build small, practical routines and coping tools. She helps people develop better self-care, manage panic or mood symptoms, and reduce anger so it interferes less with daily life.

Her somatic practice is part of how she stays grounded and present in sessions. That emphasis means Nora pays attention to bodily signals as part of emotional work. She encourages collaborative goal-setting and pacing that fits each person’s needs and rhythm.

Approaches that combine thinking and body awareness in online work

CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with small behavior changes. It can help with anxiety, panic, mood challenges, and patterns that keep anger or avoidance going.

Somatic work invites attention to the body’s signals and uses that awareness to change how stress and emotion are experienced. This approach can help when feelings are stored physically or when anxiety shows up as tension or panic.

Mindfulness practices teach simple attention skills for staying present and reducing reactivity. These skills are often paired with CBT and somatic noticing to support everyday coping and calmer responses to stress.

Finding the right mix of approaches is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to set goals, try methods, and adjust based on what helps. Expect ongoing check-ins about what is working and what needs changing so pacing matches personal needs.

Session formats are not listed here, so please confirm current session options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life, save travel time, and use shorter check-ins around work or caregiving. It also allows people to practice skills in the settings where they actually live, which can speed up learning and make changes more practical.