About Barbara
Barbara Pettibone is a licensed clinical social worker in Colorado. She brings decades of experience to sessions and focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and life changes. Barbara works with young adults, adults, and seniors and treats concerns such as relationship and intimacy issues, parenting challenges, and caregiver stress.
She has worked in both inpatient psychiatric hospitals and outpatient settings over a long career totaling 46 years.
Background and approach
That background gives her practical experience with mood disorders, trauma, chronic illness, and the transitions that come with aging. Her years in the field shape a calm, steady presence in sessions. Barbara frames therapy around the person seeking help.
She sees the client as the decision-maker and collaborates to define problems and clear goals. Sessions combine listening, honest feedback, and practical tools tailored to each person’s needs. Her approach draws from multiple methods, including Somatic techniques, Attachment-Based ideas, Client-Centered work, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
She prefers to use what helps in the moment, whether that means insight-oriented conversation, grief-focused work, mindfulness, or behavioral strategies. People often come to Barbara for help with coping skills, improving communication, navigating major life events, or processing loss. She aims to be warm, forthright, and supportive while encouraging personal responsibility and growth.
To begin, Barbara invites prospective clients to describe their concerns and goals so she can offer a clear plan together. She emphasizes collaboration and gradual steps toward better functioning and well-being.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Somatic work focuses on noticing how the body holds stress and emotion. It uses gentle attention to breath, posture, and sensation to help people feel more grounded and reduce physical tension related to trauma and anxiety.Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships influence current patterns. It helps people understand connection styles and build clearer, more supported ways of relating to others, which can ease relationship and intimacy concerns.
Client-Centered Therapy puts the person’s experience at the center. The therapist offers empathy and support while the person sets goals and pace, making this helpful for people needing a respectful, collaborative space.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Barbara will discuss options and try methods that match the client’s goals and comfort level. She partners with each person to adjust techniques as needs and preferences become clearer.
Online therapy provides flexible ways to meet. Sessions can be held by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging so people can choose what fits their schedule and energy. This flexibility makes it easier to keep momentum during life transitions, manage ongoing treatments, and stay connected when travel or mobility are challenges.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 46 years
- Licensed
- Colorado
- Languages
- English