Stephanie Clausen-Swenson, LMFT, LPCC
Collaborative therapist helping steady change
About Stephanie
Stephanie Clausen-Swenson is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) and a licensed professional clinical counselor (LPCC) practicing in Minnesota. She brings 15 years of experience and a practical, collaborative style to sessions.
Background and approach
Stephanie focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, grief, parenting challenges, and life changes. She also supports those dealing with trauma, relationship and family concerns, and issues like self-esteem and career direction.
Stephanie describes therapy as a shared process. She helps people clear repeating thoughts, try new behaviors, and take small steps toward change.
Sessions often include breathing and guided imagery, role play, and practicing assertive communication. Nature and movement are sometimes woven into her work when helpful.
Her background includes work with adoption and foster care, attachment issues, blended family adjustments, and caregiver stress. She has experience with fertility concerns, first responder stress, chronic illness, and challenges related to autism and Asperger syndrome.
This range informs a flexible approach tailored to each person’s situation. Stephanie uses several therapeutic approaches to guide therapy, including attachment-based work, client-centered techniques, cognitive behavioral strategies, and emotionally-focused ideas.
She aims to match methods to the goals the client brings. The emphasis is on practical steps that fit everyday life.
To begin, she asks people to identify concrete goals and priorities. Sessions move at a pace that feels manageable, with an eye toward real, small changes.
Stephanie welcomes questions about the process and what to expect in early sessions.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Stephanie commonly uses attachment-based work and cognitive behavioral strategies in her sessions. Attachment-based work focuses on how relationships shape emotional responses and helps people notice patterns that affect closeness and trust. Cognitive behavioral techniques look at the link between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to build practical coping skills for anxiety, depression, or stress.She also draws on client-centered methods that keep the client’s perspective central. That means the therapist and client collaborate to set goals, try different approaches, and adjust plans based on what feels useful. Figuring out which approach fits best is part of the therapy process and happens together over the first few sessions.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video lets people use body language and visual cues, while phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging work well for quick reflections, coaching-style support, or when writing helps organize thoughts. These options make it easier to fit sessions into busy days and maintain continuity when schedules change.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Grief
- Parenting issues
Also works with
- Adoption and foster care
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Minnesota
- Languages
- English