Denise Cavalcante
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who works with adults, couples, and families navigating anxiety, depression, relationship and family challenges, parenting concerns, self-esteem, life transitions, and periods of feeling stuck or overwhelmed. Before becoming a therapist, I had a varied professional career that included journalism, communications, interpreting, translating, and working with people from many different cultures and backgrounds. Those experiences continue to influence the way I understand people and relationships today. I can also provide therapy in Portuguese and Spanish.
First session
Your first session is an opportunity for us to begin getting to know each other and understanding what brought you to therapy. You do not need to arrive with everything figured out or know exactly what you want to work on. We can start with what is happening in your life, what has been difficult, and what you would like to be different. I will ask questions about you, your experiences, relationships, and concerns, while giving you space to tell your story in the way that feels most natural to you. Together, we will begin identifying patterns, priorities, and areas you may want to explore further. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions and get a sense of how I work and whether you feel comfortable working with me. My hope is that by the end of the first session, you will feel that I have begun to understand what you are experiencing and that we have a clearer sense of where we might go from there.
Strengths
My style as a therapist is warm, engaged, curious, and collaborative. I listen carefully, but I am also an active participant in the conversation. I ask questions, offer different perspectives, and help clients make connections between their experiences, relationships, and patterns of behavior. When appropriate, I am comfortable drawing from my own life experience or sharing examples and observations I have gathered over the years if I believe they can help a client see something from a different angle. I bring a broad range of personal and professional experiences to my work, along with a multicultural perspective and a genuine curiosity about people. I tend to be practical and solution-focused, while recognizing that understanding where a pattern comes from can be just as important as deciding what to do about it. I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach and adapt my work to the person, couple, or family in front of me.
Ideal clients
You may know that something in your life, your relationships, or within yourself is not working the way you would like, even if you are not yet sure what needs to change. You may be struggling with anxiety, depression, self-esteem, a difficult relationship, communication difficulties, family or parenting challenges, a life transition, or simply feeling stuck and wanting to understand why. You do not need to come to therapy already knowing your goals or having the right words to describe what you are feeling. Part of our work can be figuring that out together. What matters is being willing to become curious about yourself, your relationships, and the experiences that have shaped you. You may want to understand patterns that keep repeating, find better ways to communicate and connect with the people who matter to you, look at situations from different perspectives, or recognize what is within your control to change. Whether you are coming to therapy as an individual, as part of a couple, or with your family, we can work toward understanding what may be keeping you stuck and finding realistic ways to move toward the life and relationships you want.
Origin story
Psychology was actually my first major in college. After two years, I realized that I was probably too young at the time to fully understand or appreciate what I was studying, and I changed direction and became a journalist. Still, my curiosity about people and human behavior never went away. Throughout different careers and life experiences, I continued to be interested in what makes us who we are—how our families, relationships, cultures, and experiences influence the way we think, feel, and relate to others. Later in life, I found myself drawn back to that original interest. By then, I had accumulated many years of personal and professional experience, had worked with people from very different backgrounds, and felt ready for work that would allow me to bring those experiences together in a meaningful way. I also felt a growing desire to give back and to put what I had learned throughout my life to good use. Becoming a therapist therefore felt less like beginning a new career and more like returning to something that had interested me from the beginning—this time with the maturity, experience, and perspective to understand it differently. What continues to connect me to this profession is that there is always more to learn about people, relationships, and the many different ways we navigate life.
Ongoing work together
As our work progresses, you may begin to notice changes not only in how you feel, but also in how you respond to situations and how other people respond to you. You may recognize a pattern before automatically repeating it, communicate differently, set a boundary you previously avoided, feel more confident expressing what you need, or make a different choice in a familiar situation. One important part of therapy is recognizing what is within your control and what is not. We cannot change other people, but we can change the way we understand a situation, the beliefs we carry about ourselves, and how we respond and present ourselves in our relationships. When you begin to change your part of an interaction, you may find that others start responding to you differently as well. Progress does not always come as one big change. Often, you notice it in small moments when you realize that something that once overwhelmed you no longer has the same power, that you handled a difficult conversation differently, or that you have more choices than you thought you had. We will continue to look together at what is changing, what remains difficult, and what you want to work toward next.
Treatment methods
Strength-Based
I use a strengths-based approach by helping you recognize not only what is difficult, but also what is already working. We look at the abilities, experiences, skills and resources you already have and how you can use them to address current challenges. I often help clients notice progress they may overlook, including small changes in how they respond, communicate, make decisions, or handle situations that were difficult in the past. At the same time, I will challenge you to look at situations from different perspectives, recognize the choices that are available to you, and experiment with new ways of responding. My goal is to help you feel more confident in your ability to make decisions, advocate for yourself, and create changes in the areas of your life that are within your control. Rather than looking to therapy for all the answers, I want you to leave with a stronger sense of your own ability to navigate challenges and move forward.
Solution-Focused Brief Treatment
I use a solution-focused approach to help you move from understanding a problem to identifying what you can actually do differently. While we may explore the experiences and patterns that contributed to where you are today, we will also focus on what is within your control, what has worked before, and what small changes could begin moving you in the direction you want to go. I often help clients turn a problem that feels overwhelming into more manageable steps and recognize that change does not have to happen all at once. The goal is not to give you solutions, but to help you discover possibilities, make intentional choices, and develop solutions that make sense for your own life.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
I use Emotionally Focused Therapy to help you look beyond the immediate conflict and understand the emotions, needs, and fears that may be underneath it. In couples and family work, we explore patterns that can develop when one person reacts to another and that reaction creates a cycle that becomes difficult to break. Rather than focusing on who is right or wrong, I help you understand what each person may be experiencing and trying to communicate, even when it is coming out as anger, withdrawal, criticism, or defensiveness. As these patterns become clearer, we work toward creating safer ways to express emotions, respond to one another, and strengthen connection.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help you understand how your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors influence one another. Together, we may look at how you interpret situations, the assumptions you make about yourself or others, and how those interpretations affect the way you feel and respond. I help clients identify patterns that may be keeping them stuck, question beliefs that may no longer be helpful, and experiment with different ways of thinking and responding. Over time, changing the way you understand and approach situations can also change how you feel, how you present yourself in relationships, and sometimes how others respond to you
Location
Virtual sessions
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Licensed in
- VirginiaLicense 0904020882