- CBT methods
- DBT skills
- Attachment focus
About Alison
Alison McCandless is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with three years of clinical experience. She is licensed in Illinois and Colorado and recently relocated to Denver. Her work has focused on people facing stress, anxiety, mood disorders, trauma, and relationship and family concerns, including anger and grief.
Alison draws on several practical methods to help people manage difficult feelings and day-to-day problems. She uses cognitive behavioral techniques to look at thoughts and behaviors. She also brings in dialectical behavior methods for emotion regulation and distress tolerance. Her work often includes conversations about attachment and past relationships to make sense of current patterns.
In sessions she balances learning coping skills with reviewing personal history. She will use a biopsychosocial assessment to understand functioning and symptoms. That means she asks about social supports, medical context, and life stressors alongside emotional patterns.
Her background includes community mental health work in Chicago, where she supported people with a range of needs, including mood and psychotic disorders, trauma, and financial stress. That experience informs practical ways to manage anger, worry, and burnout.
Alison aims to listen without judgment and to offer hopeful, pragmatic next steps. If someone wants to try therapy, she asks them to complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule a first session so they can talk about goals and the best approach.
Therapeutic approaches you can use online
Alison uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice and change patterns of thinking that feed anger and low mood. CBT focuses on practical steps and exercises people can use between sessions to test new ways of responding.She also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy for skills in emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT offers concrete tools for managing intense reactions and reducing impulsive responses. Attachment-based ideas are used to understand how past relationships affect current anger and trust in others, helping people see patterns they repeat.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Alison will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their goals and preferences. She combines skill-building with attention to personal history so the plan feels workable and relevant.
Confirm the available session formats before booking, as the biography does not list specific options. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule, shorten check-ins when needed, and avoid travel time. Many people find that learning CBT or DBT skills in remote sessions lets them practice tools in daily life and bring questions back to the next meeting.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
3+ years
Listed in
Illinois, Colorado
Languages
English
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of concerns does she help with?
She works with stress, anxiety, mood disorders, trauma, relationship and family concerns, anger, grief, eating and substance issues.
How would she approach my anger or temper?
She combines skill-building and history work. That includes DBT-based emotion regulation and CBT strategies to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
What is her clinical background?
She has three years of experience in community mental health, working with people facing mood, psychotic, trauma-related, and life stress challenges.
What are her credentials and where is she based?
She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with credentials LCSW and CSW, licensed in Illinois and Colorado and practicing from Colorado.
Does she work in other languages or internationally?
Sessions are offered in English. International clients are not currently accepted.
What session formats are offered?
Please confirm the current session options before booking, as the original biography does not list specific formats.
How does the subscription and cost work?
Cost varies with location and sessions use a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
How do I get started with Alison?
Select the See online therapy options button, complete the short matching questionnaire, and schedule a first session to begin.