Sharleen King, LCSW

Sharleen King is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 35 years of professional experience in Virginia. She focuses on helping people who are struggling with stress, anxiety, mood difficulties, bipolar disorder, trauma and abuse, and low self-esteem. She frames clients as the experts on their own lives and aims to support them in making meaningful changes.

Sharleen listens for individual strengths and uses those strengths as a starting point for change. She encourages practical steps that feel doable and respects a person’s pace. Her tone is supportive and straightforward so people can feel understood without extra jargon.

Her background spans many settings over three and a half decades, so she has seen a wide variety of challenges. That experience informs how she helps people sort through life changes such as midlife transitions, complicated grief, and shifts in identity or purpose. She also brings experience with adoption and foster care, aging concerns, disaster coping, and multicultural issues.

In sessions she focuses on clear goals and workable tools, not vague concepts. Conversations may include managing shame and guilt, repairing self-trust, and finding ways to reconnect with meaning. She aims to help people build confidence and steady routines that support lasting change.

People who want a practical, steady guide through hard life moments may find her style helpful. The first step is a short matching process and scheduling a time to begin conversations about goals and next steps.

How therapeutic approaches guide online care

Evidence-based therapeutic techniques focus on practical, research-informed ways to reduce symptoms and improve daily functioning. One common approach addresses anxiety and stress by teaching breathing and grounding skills, stepwise exposure to feared situations, and planning small behavioral experiments to test new ways of coping. These techniques aim to reduce avoidance and increase confidence in handling difficult moments.

Another approach often used for mood and trauma-related concerns emphasizes identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and trying alternative, balanced thoughts. This method helps people notice how thoughts affect mood and behavior, and then practice different responses to change daily routines and mood swings over time. It can be useful for depression, bipolar mood regulation, and for healing after abuse or loss.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that fit their goals, values, and comfort level. Together they adjust the plan as progress and new needs emerge so the work stays relevant and realistic.

Confirm the exact session options before scheduling since formats are not specified in the biography. Online therapy can make it easier to fit care into a busy life - it can save travel time, allow shorter check-ins during a break, or reduce the need to arrange childcare. Licensed professionals can tailor session length and pacing to match a client's routine and goals, helping therapy feel practical and manageable.