Catherine Desponett, LMFT
Practical, values-focused therapy for stress and trauma
About Catherine
Catherine Desponett is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) who focuses on practical, skill-based therapy. She draws on approaches that help people manage stress, anxiety, and depression while working through relationship and trauma-related concerns.
Background and approach
She aims to make therapy straightforward and usable. Sessions focus on what is happening now and what can change.
Catherine uses tools from cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy to help people notice unhelpful thoughts and take steps that match their values. Her work also pays attention to attachment patterns and how early relationships affect current responses.
That helps when communication problems, abandonment worries, or blended family tensions come up. She uses a client-centered stance so people set the pace and goals of therapy.
Catherine has about 10 years of experience practicing in Colorado. She combines elements from dialectical behavior therapy to teach emotional regulation and distress tolerance skills when emotions feel overwhelming.
She also brings a trauma-aware perspective to safety and pacing. Many people who come to her want help with life transitions, caregiving stress, chronic illness, or concerns around adoption and foster care.
Catherine focuses on building practical strategies and small, steady changes that fit each person’s life. She offers sessions in English and provides online formats that fit different schedules and needs.
The first steps are simple: complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule a session to see how the work might fit.
Online approaches that build skills and connection
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify what matters to them and take committed action even when difficult thoughts or feelings appear. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and life transitions where values can guide change.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and trying new behaviors. It is practical for stress, mood shifts, and many everyday problems that respond to concrete strategies.
Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship patterns shape current reactions and communication. This approach can help people understand their needs and improve how they relate to others.
Finding the right approach often takes a few conversations. The therapist will work with each person to pick methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. That collaboration helps set realistic steps and adjusts the plan as progress happens.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is good for face-to-face conversation and skill practice, phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited, chat can be a shorter check-in, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and different life circumstances.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- 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)
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Colorado
- Languages
- English