- Anxiety and depression
- Addiction and recovery
- Values-based care
About Carleen
Carleen Riley-Mercado is a licensed social worker with ten years of clinical experience. She helps people facing anxiety, depression, stress, addiction, parenting challenges, and low self-esteem. She also supports those coping with trauma, grief, relationship and intimacy issues, and life changes such as divorce or illness.
Carleen draws on approaches that center a person’s values and lived experience. She aims to build a respectful, nonjudgmental space where clients feel understood. Her work includes helping people manage emotions, reduce unhelpful patterns, and reconnect with what matters to them.
In sessions she uses plain language and practical skills. That may include exercises from cognitive behavioral therapy to shift thinking patterns, tools from dialectical behavior therapy to manage intense emotions, and acceptance and commitment strategies to clarify values and take action. Attachment-based ideas guide conversations about close relationships and how past wounds show up now.
She has worked with people from a wide range of backgrounds and belief systems, including those who identify as LGBTQ+ and those with religious or conservative perspectives. Her focus areas include coping with natural or human-caused disaster, caregiver stress, substance concerns, eating and sleeping issues, ADHD, and aging-related worries.
Clients can expect a collaborative approach that balances practical steps and emotional processing. Carleen emphasizes steady progress at a person’s own pace and aims to help people find clearer choices and more manageable daily routines.
How therapeutic approaches shape online work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, then identify personal values to guide meaningful action. It can help with anxiety, depression, and coping with life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the link between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and uses practical exercises to change patterns that increase distress. CBT is often useful for anxiety, depression, and sleep or eating concerns. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early close relationships affect current relationships and emotional responses, and it can help with trust, intimacy, and communication struggles.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to choose methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. This may mean combining approaches or shifting strategies as progress unfolds.
Confirm the available online session options before booking, since specific formats are not listed in the profile. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life by reducing travel time, allowing shorter check-ins during a work break, or offering options when camera use or bandwidth vary. Licensed professionals can adapt ACT, CBT, and attachment-focused work to an online setting so clients practice skills between sessions and address real-life challenges as they come up.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
10+ years
Credentials
Michigan, Kansas
Languages
English
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does this therapist help with?
She works with people coping with anxiety, depression, stress, addiction, parenting concerns, low self-esteem, trauma, grief, relationship and intimacy issues, and life transitions.
How would you describe her therapeutic style?
Her style is collaborative and plainspoken. She focuses on building trust, practical skills, and exploring values to guide next steps.
What is her professional background?
She has about ten years of clinical experience practicing across several states and brings that experience to work with a wide range of concerns.
What credentials and location are listed for this therapist?
She holds MI LMSW and KS LSCSW credentials and is based in Kansas according to the profile information.
Which languages does she use in sessions?
Sessions are offered in English.
What session formats are available with this clinician?
Please confirm current session formats before booking, as the profile does not list specific formats.
How are fees and payment handled?
Cost varies with location and therapist arrangement; sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin working with this therapist?
Choose the Start Therapy button, fill out the short matching questionnaire, and schedule according to the therapist's availability.