Carlene Messer , LCSW

Carlene Messer is a licensed clinical social worker with 20 years of experience helping people navigate stress, trauma, relationships, and life transitions. As an LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker - she brings practical, evidence-informed care to individuals, couples, students, families, and veterans. Her work spans university counseling centers, school systems, private practice, community mental health centers, and the VA system, giving her a broad perspective on how challenges develop and how change can happen.

Carlene takes an eclectic approach, drawing from a range of evidence-based techniques to match each person’s needs rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all model. She helps clients clarify goals, recognize strengths, and build skills to address anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, anger, relationship conflict, abuse, and trauma. Her practice also focuses on issues such as grief, intimacy concerns, career questions, coping with life changes, and compassion fatigue.

Her style is approachable and down-to-earth - often laid back, common sense, and occasionally playful - aiming to make therapy both enlightening and rewarding. Carlene works collaboratively with clients to make sense of who they are, what they do, and what they want, helping them see possibilities for growth and healthier connections with themselves and others.

Evidence-Based Approaches and Online Support

Carlene uses a range of evidence-based therapeutic techniques adapted for remote work. Cognitive and behavioral strategies focus on identifying unhelpful thoughts and developing practical coping skills to reduce anxiety, manage mood, and improve day-to-day functioning. Trauma-informed approaches attend to the effects of past hurt and abuse while helping clients build safety, grounding, and gradual processing of painful memories. Strengths-based, goal-focused work highlights a person’s existing resources and clarifies actionable steps toward healthier relationships, better sleep, and clearer life purpose.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Carlene partners with each client to weigh options, test techniques, and adjust the plan based on personal goals, preferences, and progress, so therapy evolves in a way that feels useful and respectful of the client’s pace.

Online therapy with Carlene is available by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging, offering flexibility for different schedules and comfort levels. These options make it easier to fit consistent care into busy lives, support ongoing skill practice between sessions, and maintain connection when in-person meetings are not practical.