Polly Mortensen, LMHC

Polly Mortensen is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) based in New York with 21 years of clinical experience. She draws on long experience in counseling, vocational rehabilitation, and community settings to help people facing stress, anxiety, career decisions, and big life transitions. Polly frames sessions with warmth and plain talk so clients can find practical steps forward.

She began her career supporting people with long-term mental health challenges in outpatient rehabilitation programs. Polly has provided home-based therapy for people living with HIV and worked with individuals in foster care. She has also supported people who have experienced trauma and has long experience with the LGBTQIA+ community.

Polly spent 14 years in vocational and rehabilitation counseling in New York and Florida. That work informs her approach to career and educational coaching and to supporting people with disabilities as they pursue independence and meaningful work.

Her counseling style is straightforward and relational. She combines Client-Centered ideas with Cognitive Behavioral and Dialectical Behavior techniques. Mindfulness and motivational interviewing are woven into sessions to help people manage thoughts, feelings, and decisions.

Typical concerns Polly addresses include depression, relationship strain, grief, parenting stress, ADHD, burnout, and coping with life changes. She also helps with issues such as abandonment, attachment, body image, chronic illness, and forgiveness.

Polly encourages a collaborative process that starts with where the client is now. She focuses on clear goals, practical tools, and steady progress to help people regain balance and move toward the life they want.

How Polly’s approaches shape online therapy

Polly uses Client-Centered Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as core parts of her work. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely and helping people set their own goals, which can help when someone needs a steady, accepting space to talk through a midlife shift or relationship problem. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at how thoughts and behaviors interact and gives simple tools to change patterns that increase anxiety or low mood.

She also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills when emotions feel overwhelming. DBT offers concrete coping skills for managing intense feelings, improving relationships, and tolerating stressful moments without making things worse.

Finding the right mix of approaches is a collaborative process. Polly will work with each person to identify goals and test techniques that fit their life. She adjusts pacing, skill work, and conversation based on what the client finds most helpful.

Session formats are not listed in the biography, so confirm current options before booking. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into busy days, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and reduce time spent traveling. It also lets people continue progress through major life changes, while keeping work focused on practical skills, thought work, and steady support.