Polly Mortensen

Polly Mortensen is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) based in New York with 21 years of experience. She focuses on helping people handle stress, anxiety, grief, and major life changes. Polly draws on a steady, encouraging manner to help people find practical ways forward during hard times.

Her background includes long-term work in psychiatric rehabilitation and home-based care for people with health and mental health needs. She has helped numerous clients connected to foster care and has experience supporting members of the LGBT community. Polly also spent many years in vocational and rehabilitation counseling across New York and Florida, offering career and educational coaching.

Polly uses a compassionate, down-to-earth approach in sessions. She blends Client-Centered Therapy with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing. Sessions focus on clear skills, small experiments, and real-life changes rather than complex jargon.

Common concerns she addresses include relationship and family stress, parenting questions, ADHD, trauma and abuse, depression, bipolar disorder, anger, and compassion fatigue. She also works with issues such as abandonment, attachment difficulties, body image, chronic illness, caregiver stress, codependency, and communication problems.

Polly aims to meet people where they are and tailor work to individual goals. She emphasizes building strengths, practical coping strategies, and choices that fit day-to-day life. People who want a warm, experienced counselor for steady guidance may find her style helpful.

Therapeutic approaches and how they work online

Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and responding to what matters most to the client. The therapist follows the client’s lead, offering empathy and reflection to help people clarify goals and priorities. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and testing new behaviors. It uses practical exercises and step-by-step plans to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches skills for managing strong emotions and improving relationships, including techniques for distress tolerance and emotional regulation.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with the client to decide which methods best match their goals, needs, and daily life. Small adjustments are common as work progresses so the plan fits the client’s pace and circumstances.

Confirm the specific session formats before booking because the biography does not list them. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy schedule, reduce travel time, and allow for shorter check-ins when needed. It also allows clients to practice skills in the settings where they live and work, then bring real examples back to sessions for review.