Yuridia (Valerie) Polonsky, LCSW
Compassionate, practical therapy with somatic awareness
About Yuridia
Yuridia (Valerie) Polonsky is a licensed clinical social worker in Florida with 15 years of professional experience. She offers calm, steady support for people facing stress, anxiety, depression, and major life changes. Sessions are offered in English and Spanish.
Valerie creates a straightforward, respectful space where clients can talk through what feels hard. She listens for patterns in relationships, attachment, and day-to-day routines. Practical tools are offered alongside attention to feelings in the body and past experiences.
Background and approach
Her work often addresses parenting concerns, communication problems, and struggles with intimacy and self-esteem. She also supports people coping with grief, addictions, sleep problems, career stress, and ADHD-related challenges. Additional focuses include abandonment, body image, caregiver stress, and blended family issues.
Therapy draws on Somatic approaches, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Attachment-based methods, Client-centered work, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. That mix lets Valerie tailor sessions to what a person needs in the moment. Conversations may combine talking, skills practice, and awareness of physical sensations.
People who choose Valerie tend to want clear strategies and a collaborative relationship. The goal is to help clients manage current symptoms, make changes that fit their life, and strengthen emotional and relational coping. Start with a brief questionnaire to match and schedule a session.
Approaches that translate to online sessions
Somatic-informed work focuses on how emotions show up in the body. It helps people notice tension, breath, and physical reactions that link to stress or trauma, and use awareness to reduce reactivity. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, teaches ways to accept difficult thoughts and feelings while committing to actions that match personal values. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and life transitions where people want clearer direction. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at patterns formed in close relationships. It helps people understand relationship triggers and try new ways of relating that feel safer and more connected. Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss needs, goals, and preferences and adapt methods over time. Sessions can shift between talking, skill-building, and body-focused awareness depending on what helps most in the moment. Online work offers practical flexibility. Video and phone sessions let people keep regular appointments from home. Live chat and text messaging can support short check-ins, skill prompts, or ongoing coaching between longer sessions. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life while maintaining a steady therapeutic relationship.Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Self esteem
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- 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
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- 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-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English, Spanish