Debra Black-Mayo, LPC
Compassionate somatic-informed counseling for life challenges
About Debra
Debra Black-Mayo is a Licensed Professional Counselor with 20 years of experience in Arizona. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and issues that affect self-esteem and motivation. She meets people where they are and works alongside them to make practical changes.
Her work uses somatic ideas alongside attachment-based and client-centered approaches. Sessions often include attention to how the body holds tension, patterns in relationships, and the person's own goals.
Background and approach
Debra blends practical coping skills with space to process painful memories and emotions. She has supported people facing trauma, abuse, and addiction concerns. She also helps with relationship and intimacy-related issues, parenting strain, and challenges tied to caregiving or first responder work.
Other areas she addresses include codependency, communication problems, and coping with major life changes such as divorce or loss. Debra draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills when useful. That can mean learning ways to notice thoughts, manage intense feelings, and try new behaviors.
Her aim is to offer tools people can use between sessions. Sessions are offered in English and take place online through a mix of video calls, phone, live chat, or text messaging. Pricing varies with location and uses a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
To begin, a prospective client selects Start Therapy, completes a short matching questionnaire, and schedules a time based on therapist availability.
How somatic and relational approaches translate to online care
Debra draws on somatic ideas to notice how the body and nervous system respond to stress and trauma. In practice this means helping people tune into breathing, posture, and bodily sensations to reduce tension and stay present during hard conversations. Attachment-based work looks at patterns in close relationships and helps people try new ways of connecting and setting boundaries.Client-centered work shapes the sessions so the person's priorities lead the way. The therapist and client decide together which approaches make sense, and they adjust as needs and goals change. This collaborative process helps find a good fit rather than applying one fixed method.
Online sessions include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text messaging to match different needs. Video sessions allow face-to-face contact for movement and breathing work, while phone or text options offer flexibility for busy days. These formats make it easier to attend regularly and to use skills between meetings, which supports steady progress over time.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does she help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she located?
Which languages are supported for sessions?
Can international clients work with her?
What formats are available for sessions?
How do I begin therapy with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Arizona
- Languages
- English