Donna Jeane Pappas, LCMHC

Donna Jeane Pappas is a licensed clinical mental health counselor (LCMHC) in North Carolina with 32 years of experience. She helps people who feel weighed down by change, loss, health challenges, or everyday stress. Her style is collaborative and respectful, aimed at practical progress rather than long dives into the past.

People often seek her help during life transitions, grieving, career shifts, empty nesting, caregiving strains, or when facing illness. She also works with concerns such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, parenting stress, relationship and intimacy-related issues, and compassion fatigue. Clients who want clarity and forward movement tend to fit well with her approach.

Pappas describes her work as coaching-oriented within a counseling framework. Sessions focus on setting concrete goals, identifying strengths, and taking small steps toward meaningful change. She draws on techniques that encourage action, acceptance, and clearer thinking to help clients build resilience.

Her practice pays specific attention to living with health challenges, including chronic pain, illness, and caregiving for those with serious conditions. She also supports people navigating aging and geriatric concerns, hospice and end-of-life questions, postpartum and pregnancy-related changes, and midlife transitions.

Across sessions she uses methods from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, client-centered and narrative approaches, and motivational interviewing. The aim is to create tools that support purposeful living and better day-to-day functioning, tailored to each person’s goals.

How her approaches translate to online work

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings while committing to actions that match their values. It can be useful for stress, grief, and living with health challenges. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting unhelpful thinking patterns and testing new behaviors to reduce symptoms like anxiety or depression. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes a respectful, nonjudgmental relationship where the person’s goals guide the work and strengths are amplified.

Choosing the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will work collaboratively to identify which methods fit a person’s needs, goals, and preferences. That may mean mixing elements from different approaches and adjusting over time as goals or life circumstances change.

Confirm the available online session formats before booking, as the profile does not list specific options. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life, reduce travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when needed. It also lets people continue care while managing health concerns or caregiving responsibilities, since sessions can be scheduled around daily demands rather than requiring travel.