Kristi Whitford, LCSW

Kristi Whitford is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with 20 years of experience helping people through hard moments. She uses a warm, empathetic style and focuses on meeting people where they are. She aims to be easy to talk to and listens without judgment.

Kristi often helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and addiction. She also supports concerns around relationships, intimacy, parenting, and related issues like communication problems and codependency. Her background includes work with adoption and foster care, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and adjustment after major life events.

Her approach is client-centered, which means she shapes sessions around each person's needs and preferences. She also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Solution-Focused Therapy to guide practical steps forward. Sessions tend to focus on clarifying values, building motivation for change, and finding small, usable strategies that fit daily life.

Kristi’s style is straightforward and compassionate. She helps people break problems into manageable parts and develop concrete next steps. She encourages collaboration so goals and pacing reflect what a person can realistically do between sessions.

Kristi practices in Florida and works in English. If you are considering therapy, she asks that you complete the Start Therapy questionnaire to help match needs and schedule a session.

How Kristi’s approaches translate to online work

Kristi uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Client-Centered Therapy as foundations in her work. ACT focuses on clarifying what matters to a person and helping them take small steps toward those values despite difficult thoughts or feelings. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening closely and shaping sessions around each person’s experience and preferences.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. Kristi collaborates with people to identify which methods fit their goals and daily life. Together they choose techniques and pacing that feel realistic and useful rather than forcing a single method.

If you are considering online therapy, confirm the current session options before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to fit counseling into a busy schedule, reduce travel time, and allow for shorter check-ins when that is helpful. They can also let people use approaches like ACT and solution-focused work in ways that apply directly to everyday routines.