Allison Virtue

About Allison

Allison Virtue, MSW is an ASW who graduated from California State University in 2017. As a seasoned clinician, Allison has 7 years of experience in the field and is licensed in California. What makes you enjoy working with seniors?

When someone has reached their golden years, it comes with a lifetime of stories, relationships, and experiences. I love learning the rich history that helps make someone who they are and partnering with them to look forward to the challenges and joys that come with growing older. Why do you think online therapy is effective for seniors?

There's no point in something existing if we have no way to get to it, and it is hard for many people to get to in-person therapy. Online therapy makes it easier! It can be done from home, it can be flexible to your schedule, it can be an easier way to try something new and see if it works for you.

Video chatting and phone calls bring the world to our kitchen tables – including professional, confidential therapy. Can you share some details about your experience? During my time as a medical advocate, I connected with people and helped them navigate disability, chronic pain, and a medical system that does not always want to help them.

I've also done both one-on-one and group therapy with people dealing with grief, loss, anxiety, and depression. In my career as a whole, I've had the chance to work with so different people in different situations. That including helping people struggling with substance abuse, people understanding how trauma impacted their life, and strengthening families dealing with complex emotional problems.

Can you provide details on your approach to therapy? I believe the most important thing in working with someone is to figure out what they want to get out of therapy. Different goals mean we take a different path together.

Once we've established what we want to do together, then we can work together on the process. The specific tools I turn to are often Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (finding connections between thoughts and behaviors and learning to manage them), Mindfulness (developing an awareness and grounding in the present), and methods that pull from both of these modalities – Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. We will work together to find methods that work with who you are, the skills you've developed already, and what you connect with to help your future journey.