Dr. Stephen Bentley , LPCC

Dr. Stephen Bentley is a licensed professional clinical counselor (LPCC) with more than 32 years of clinical experience across a variety of settings. Over the course of his career he has served as a director and supervisor for more than a decade and has remained with the same practice for the past 20 years. His background includes hospital-based group and individual therapy, crisis intervention, and work with people facing substance use, mood disorders, anxiety, trauma and abuse, attention challenges, eating concerns, relationship and family difficulties, and a range of other complex presentations.

He practices from a person-centered perspective that prioritizes a collaborative working relationship between therapist and client. He emphasizes respect, sensitivity, and compassion and seeks to avoid stigmatizing labels while helping individuals explore change. In recent years he has incorporated telehealth into his work and has found remote sessions to be an effective way to reach people who face barriers to attending office appointments.

His clinical approach blends cognitive-behavioral strategies with humanistic, psychodynamic, and rational-emotive elements, and he draws on attachment-informed ideas when relevant to concerns such as abandonment, adoption and foster care, and attachment difficulties. Dr. Bentley brings decades of experience supporting people through grief, chronic illness, caregiving stress, career transitions, and other life challenges.

Attachment-Informed, Client-Centered, and CBT Approaches for Online Care

Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current patterns of relating and can be helpful for issues like abandonment, attachment difficulties, and relationship distress. It focuses on understanding emotional bonds and promoting more secure ways of connecting with others.

Client-Centered Therapy centers on the therapeutic relationship itself - offering empathic, nonjudgmental listening and working at the client’s pace. This approach supports people coping with life changes, grief, self-esteem concerns, and the stresses of daily living by creating space for exploration and growth.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that contribute to anxiety, depression, addictive patterns, and other challenges. It is practical and goal-oriented, teaching skills clients can use between sessions to manage symptoms and respond differently to stressors.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to assess needs, goals, and preferences and to tailor methods that fit the individual’s situation and values.

Online sessions using video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging offer flexibility for busy schedules, reduce travel time, and make it easier for people in different locations to access licensed professionals and therapists when in-person care is difficult to arrange.