Charlene Sims, LMFT
Practical, strengths-based therapy for everyday challenges
About Charlene
Charlene Sims is a California-based licensed marriage and family therapist who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, grief, and relationship concerns. She keeps sessions straightforward and focused on practical steps.
Background and approach
Charlene invites clients to tell their story and builds on their strengths to move forward. She uses a few clear approaches depending on the person's needs.
Client-centered work starts from the client's own goals and experiences. Cognitive behavioral strategies look at thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going and introduce simple skills to change them.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills and mindfulness tools are used for strong emotions and moments of overwhelm. Solution-focused techniques help set short-term, achievable goals so people notice change quickly.
Charlene adapts these methods to each person rather than following a single plan. She brings eight years of clinical experience in community and outpatient settings.
That background includes helping people who have faced trauma, relationship strain, chronic health challenges, and losses. Her work pays attention to culture and life context when planning care.
Sessions are conversational and practical. Charlene will listen, offer tools, and help create a step-by-step plan tailored to the client's priorities.
The aim is clearer thinking, more effective coping, and more intentional choices.
Therapeutic tools that translate to online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on the client's own goals and life story, with the therapist listening closely and responding to what matters most. This approach is useful for people who want a collaborative space to make sense of change and set personal priorities.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and teaches practical skills to shift them. It often involves brief exercises and homework, which fit well into video or messaging formats. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, adds emotion regulation and distress-tolerance skills for intense feelings and frequent relationship stress.
Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with the client about their goals, try methods that match those goals, and adjust the plan based on what helps most. This keeps the process collaborative and tailored to each person's needs.
Online therapy options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful for in-depth conversations and skill demonstrations, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat suits quick check-ins, and messaging supports short updates or ongoing skill practice. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to continue work between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Anger management
- Depression
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Domestic violence
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English