- Years in practice
- 23
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Licensed in
- Pennsylvania, Virginia
- Languages
- English
- Focus
- Stress, Anxiety
- Focus
- Family conflicts
- Focus
- Trauma and abuse
About Nicole
Nicole Guessford is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 23 years of experience. She helps people facing stress, anxiety, parenting challenges, trauma, and family conflict. Her style is direct and practical, and she often assigns short exercises to do between sessions.
She practices in Pennsylvania and holds LCSW credentials for Virginia and Pennsylvania. Sessions focus on clear goals and steady progress rather than open-ended talk. Nicole emphasizes self-care and self-compassion as part of everyday change.
Background and approach
Nicole draws on approaches that include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Attachment-Based ideas, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and a client-centered attitude. She adapts those methods to each person’s needs and life situation. That means conversations, skill-building, and small homework tasks that fit your schedule.
Her background includes long-term clinical work across different care settings, giving her familiarity with grief, relationship strain, chronic illness challenges, and compassion fatigue. She also supports people working through changes such as separation, career shifts, or midlife transitions. In sessions she aims to be respectful, sensitive, and straightforward.
People who prefer a practical, structured approach tend to do well with her. The work focuses on concrete steps you can try between meetings to notice change over time.
What Nicole works with
Everything Nicole lists, in the therapist's own terms. Parenting is the reason this directory exists; the rest shows what else Nicole helps people with.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
- Parenting issues
- Depression
- Relationship issues
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Sleeping disorders
- Anger management
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
- Bipolar disorder
- Coping with life changes
- Compassion fatigue
- ADHD
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family problems
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Midlife crisis
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Approaches Nicole lists
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
Listing an approach is not evidence of training in it. This directory copies what each therapist names and does not check training records.
Therapeutic approaches used in online care
Nicole often uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy along with attachment-informed work. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy focuses on helping people notice thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, then choose actions that reflect their values. It can help with anxiety, stress, and parenting tensions.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is about identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and testing them with real-life experiments. It supports change in mood, sleep, eating habits, and daily routines by teaching concrete skills and steps to try between sessions.
Attachment-based ideas help people understand patterns in close relationships and how early bonds shape expectations. This perspective can be useful when addressing family conflict, communication problems, or intimacy-related concerns.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with clients to choose methods that match goals and preferences. That means trying techniques, reviewing what helps, and adjusting the plan as needed.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is useful for fuller conversation and nonverbal cues, phone works well when bandwidth is low or you prefer not to be on camera, and chat or messaging can support brief check-ins or ongoing skill practice. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and keep progress moving between appointments.
Questions people ask about Nicole
What concerns does Nicole commonly address?
She works with stress, anxiety, parenting concerns, trauma and abuse, depression, relationship and intimacy issues, grief, eating and sleeping problems, anger, self-esteem, ADHD, and related life changes.
What is her therapeutic style like?
Nicole uses a structured and direct style with a focus on practical skills. Sessions often include short exercises or "homework" to practice between meetings.
How much clinical experience does she have?
She brings 23 years of professional experience working across clinical settings, which informs her approach to grief, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and family concerns.
Where is she licensed and based?
Nicole holds a Licensed Clinical Social Worker credential in Virginia and Pennsylvania and practices in Pennsylvania.
Which languages are supported for sessions?
Sessions are offered in English.
What session formats are available?
Therapy is provided through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging as session formats.
How does payment and cost work?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin working with her?
Start by selecting the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and then schedule sessions according to the therapist's availability.
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