About Annette
Annette Rios-Barrera is a licensed clinical social worker based in Texas with 23 years of experience. She uses a down-to-earth style and a focus on relationships and body awareness to help people navigate hard moments. Her pronouns are she/her and she offers services in English and Spanish.
She often supports people facing anxiety, depression, grief, and major life changes. Annette also works with clients dealing with intimacy concerns, relationship strain, and stress tied to work or caregiving.
Background and approach
Her practice includes care for those in the LGBT community and people exploring identity and nontraditional relationship structures. Annette blends talk-based methods with attention to bodily experience. She draws on somatic approaches to help people notice how stress shows up in the body.
She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and attachment-focused ideas to build emotional resilience and clearer relationship patterns. Sessions are practical and paced to each person’s needs. She aims to create emotional safety and rebuild trust while helping clients set small, achievable steps.
Playfulness and breath or movement work may appear when it feels helpful. Annette brings additional focus to issues such as abandonment, adoption and foster care, aging and caregiver stress, chronic illness and pain, body image, and aspects of sexual expression like BDSM and kink. Her work addresses both the immediate problem and how it fits into a person’s broader life story.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online work
Annette uses somatic ideas to help people notice bodily signals like tension, shallow breathing, or restlessness and learn small, practical ways to respond. This can help with anxiety, chronic stress, and physical reactions to emotional triggers.She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which focuses on noticing thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and identifying values to guide action. ACT can be useful for depression, anxiety, and coping with life changes.
Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work together. The therapist and client collaborate to choose methods that fit the person’s goals, body responses, and life context. Adjustments are made over time based on what is helpful.
Online sessions offer flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text messaging, so people can access care from home or on the go. These options make it easier to maintain continuity during busy weeks, travel, or when mobility or health issues limit in-person visits.
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does she help with?
How would you describe her therapeutic style?
What is her clinical background?
What credentials and where is she licensed?
Which languages are supported and are international clients accepted?
What formats are available for sessions?
How does pricing work?
How do I begin working together?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Gottman Method
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- Texas
- Languages
- English, Spanish