Rita Simmonds, LMHC

Rita Simmonds is a licensed mental health counselor in New York who helps people facing stress, anxiety, trauma, grief, and low self-esteem. She works with clients on depression, addictions, relationship and intimacy concerns, and issues around career and life changes. Rita also supports people dealing with ADHD, compassion fatigue, and the strain of caregiving.

Rita uses a gentle, client-centered style that prioritizes listening and understanding. She blends approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, existential work, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing when appropriate. Sessions aim to identify practical steps, build coping skills, and process painful memories at a pace that feels manageable.

She offers a Christian-informed perspective for clients who want faith included in their work, and she lets clients guide how or whether spirituality is part of sessions. Rita pays attention to attachment patterns, abandonment concerns, and body image issues and helps people strengthen self-compassion and communication.

Rita draws on five years of clinical experience as an LMHC in New York. That background informs work with chronic illness, caregiver stress, eating and sleeping concerns, and grief after loss. She emphasizes collaboration and practical tools alongside deeper meaning-making.

People who choose Rita typically want a therapist who listens closely and helps them make concrete changes while also addressing deeper emotional patterns. To begin, patients complete an intake process and discuss goals so sessions match their needs.

How Rita’s Approaches Translate to Online Work

Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and meeting each person where they are. In practice this means the therapist follows the client's lead, reflects what they say, and helps them name goals and next steps. Cognitive behavioral therapy looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches concrete skills to change unhelpful patterns. It can help with anxiety, depression, and coping during life transitions. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR, is a way to process painful memories and reduce their emotional intensity when used appropriately and with careful pacing.

Finding the right mix of approaches is a shared process. Rita works with clients to identify which methods feel most helpful for their goals, adjusting strategies over time. That collaborative stance helps make sessions feel tailored rather than one-size-fits-all.

The biography does not list specific session formats, so confirm current online options before booking. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions around work, caregiving, or medical needs. It can also offer shorter check-ins or a quicker way to maintain ongoing skill practice between longer sessions. Talk with the therapist about scheduling and format preferences to find what works best for everyday life.