About Nicole
Nicole Guessford is a licensed clinical social worker with 23 years of experience. She offers a direct, structured style and aims to treat people with respect, sensitivity, and compassion. Nicole focuses on practical steps and often assigns activities to do between sessions to help skills stick.
She helps people managing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, and trauma. She also works with concerns around parenting, family conflict, relationship and intimacy problems, and challenges like eating, sleeping, anger, and self-esteem.
Background and approach
Other focus areas include caregiving stress, chronic illness and pain, attachment issues, and post-traumatic stress. Nicole uses a blend of approaches to match each person’s needs. She draws on somatic-informed methods to bring attention to bodily experience, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to clarify values and committed action, and Attachment-Based ideas to address patterns in relationships.
She also uses client-centered and cognitive behavioral strategies when helpful. Nicole is licensed as an LCSW in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Her licence numbers are PA LCSW CW015210 and VA LCSW 0904014683.
She provides therapy via telehealth and works within insurance requirements for those services. To begin, people choose the Start Therapy button and complete a short matching questionnaire. Sessions are scheduled according to therapist availability and use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
Nicole conducts sessions in English and does not accept international clients.
How Nicole’s approaches translate to online sessions
Nicole often uses somatic-informed work to help people notice how stress and emotions show up in the body. This can include grounding, breath awareness, and simple movement cues to reduce physical tension and improve self-awareness. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is used to clarify values and build small, practical steps toward what matters most. ACT can help with anxiety, depression, and coping with life changes through committed action. Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on patterns in relationships and how early connections shape trust, closeness, and communication; it can help with intimacy issues, family conflict, and relational trust.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist works with each person to decide which methods feel most helpful and adjusts the plan as needs change. Clients often combine body-focused techniques with thought-oriented exercises and homework between sessions.
Online therapy options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to suit different needs and schedules. These formats make it easier to fit sessions into busy lives, keep continuity during life transitions, and practice skills in familiar settings. Nicole uses these formats to offer flexible, consistent care that supports ongoing progress.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Midlife crisis
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sleeping disorders
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Workplace 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)
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- Pennsylvania, Virginia
- Languages
- English