About Renee
Renee Giegel is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Virginia with 27 years of experience. She helps people facing addictions, trauma, sleep problems, low self-esteem, depression, and life transitions. Her approach is down-to-earth and respectful, focused on helping people feel heard and understood.
Renee builds a calm space where clients can share thoughts and feelings without judgment. She listens to what matters most, then works with each person to set practical goals.
Background and approach
Sessions aim to boost coping skills, reduce distress, and restore a sense of balance. Her work draws on somatic methods alongside attachment-based and client-centered ideas. That means attention to how the body and relationships affect emotions, paired with a warm, person-focused stance.
Cognitive tools are used when helpful to change thinking patterns that get in the way. Clients often explore topics like grief, intimacy concerns, parenting strain, career stress, chronic pain, and ADHD-related challenges. Renee also supports those facing eating issues, bipolar mood concerns, and complications from illness or caregiving roles.
The therapy process is collaborative. Renee helps people make small changes that fit their daily lives. She encourages steady progress and practical steps toward clearer thinking and greater emotional regulation.
To begin, she invites people to describe what feels most urgent. From there she and the client plan sessions that match goals and pace, using conversational insight plus hands-on strategies.
How Renee Uses Different Approaches Online
Renee uses somatic ideas to notice how the body and sensations connect to emotions and stress. In practice this might mean grounding exercises, breath awareness, or helping clients track bodily signals linked to anxiety or trauma. Attachment-based work looks at relationship patterns and how early bonds shape current connections, useful for intimacy, trust, and communication concerns.She also uses a client-centered stance that keeps the person’s experience front and center. That means the therapist follows the client's lead, reflects feelings, and helps people find their own solutions. Together the client and therapist decide which approach or blend fits best based on needs, goals, and comfort level; this choice is a collaborative process rather than a fixed plan.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy lives. Video calls let people see facial cues and interact in real time, while phone sessions provide a simpler audio option. Live chat and text-based messaging can suit those who prefer shorter, written check-ins or need support between sessions. These formats make it easier to keep therapy consistent and fit it into daily routines.
Frequently asked questions
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What is her style in therapy?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Addictions
- Trauma and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 27 years
- Licensed
- Virginia
- Languages
- English