Yana Gaykov, LCSW

Yana Gaykov is a licensed clinical social worker with 20 years of experience in New York. She focuses on practical support for people facing stress, anxiety, relationship and parenting challenges. Yana writes that she sees clients as the experts in their own stories and aims to build on their strengths. She emphasizes a compassionate, straightforward approach that helps people take the first steps toward change.

In sessions she listens for what matters most and helps clients set clear goals. Conversations include identifying small shifts in thinking and behavior that make daily life easier. Yana also helps people process grief, trauma, and the effects of long-term stress. She pays attention to how physical health, sleep, and pain can affect mood and coping.

People come for help with addiction, compassion fatigue, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and issues around intimacy and self-esteem. She also supports those navigating adoption or foster care concerns, caregiving stress, aging, pregnancy and childbirth, and cultural or multicultural worries. Yana aims to help people manage impulses, work through guilt or infidelity, and regain a sense of direction in midlife.

Her style is down-to-earth and collaborative. She explains options plainly and helps clients try new strategies between sessions. Progress is often the result of steady, practical changes rather than quick fixes. Yana encourages people to be patient with themselves and to notice small gains.

Therapy with her centers on real-life problems and achievable steps. She invites clients to talk through what they’re facing and to set goals that fit their daily routines.

How her approaches work in online therapy

Yana uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on real problems and practical changes. One common approach she favors helps people identify unhelpful thoughts and try new ways of thinking and behaving to reduce anxiety and depression. This method breaks problems into manageable steps and teaches skills people can use between sessions.

She also emphasizes behavioral strategies that change daily routines, sleep habits, and activity levels to improve mood and energy. These techniques are useful for coping with chronic stress, grief, and conditions that affect sleep and appetite. The aim is to make small, steady shifts that add up over time.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. She will talk with each person about their goals, needs, and preferences and then choose or adapt techniques that fit. Clients are involved in decisions so the plan matches what they want to try.

For online therapy session formats, please confirm available options before booking as the biography does not list explicit formats. Online work can make scheduling easier, fit sessions into a busy week, and allow check-ins that are shorter or more flexible when needed. It also removes commute time and can make it simpler to follow up on skills between sessions.