Sharmen Rutherford, LPC-MHSP, LPC

Sharmen Rutherford is a Licensed Professional Counselor with 16 years of experience. She offers calm, practical support when life feels overwhelming. Her work focuses on stress and anxiety alongside addictions, trauma, eating concerns, depression, and related struggles. She helps people build concrete skills for coping with strong emotions and difficult situations. Sessions often involve learning strategies for managing anxiety, improving sleep, and handling grief or relationship strain. She also addresses problems tied to substance use and eating difficulties in straightforward, step-by-step ways. Sharmen holds LPC-MHSP and LPC credentials and practices in Alabama. Her background includes long-term work with people navigating co-occurring disorders and trauma. She draws on methods that promote present-moment awareness and practical behavior change. Her approach blends acceptance and commitment techniques with cognitive behavioral tools and mindfulness. Clients can expect a focus on small, doable changes and on understanding how thoughts and choices affect daily life. She pays attention to attachment and family-of-origin patterns when they matter to a person’s goals. Sharmen values a respectful working relationship and aims to equip people with tools they can use between sessions. She also supports those coping with career stress, compassion fatigue, ADHD, and identity concerns. The tone in sessions is direct but compassionate, centered on helping each person move toward clearer goals.

Online therapy approaches and what they do

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. It can be useful for stress, anxiety, and coping with life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying thought and behavior patterns that keep problems going and teaches practical strategies to change them, which helps with anxiety, depression, sleep, and eating concerns. Finding the right way of working is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals and try different methods to see what fits best. Together they will pick techniques that match the person's needs, preferences, and daily life. Confirm the current online session options before booking since formats were not specified in the biography. Many people find online therapy helpful because it can fit into work breaks, remove travel time, or make it easier to check in from different places. Online sessions can also allow for shorter follow-ups or regular weekly meetings depending on what the therapist offers. Ask about specific session types and scheduling when you complete the matching questionnaire so arrangements match your routine.