LCSW, CSW
Barbara Pettibone, LCSW, CSW
- Experience46 years
- LocationColorado
- Focus areasStress and Anxiety, Trauma and abuse, and Grief
- Therapy approachesInternal Family Systems and Attachment-Based Therapy
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About Barbara
Barbara Pettibone is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW, CSW) based in Colorado who brings 46 years of experience to her clinical work. She frames therapy as a collaborative effort in which the client sets the goals and the therapist provides guidance, support, and practical tools.
Background and approach
Barbara has worked in both inpatient psychiatric hospitals and outpatient settings and has a long history of helping adults and older adults navigate life transitions, loss, health challenges, and relationship shifts. Her style blends straightforward honesty with warmth and care, and she adapts methods to fit each person's needs rather than adhering to a single technique.
Barbara draws from approaches such as Internal Family Systems, attachment-focused work, client-centered practice, cognitive behavioral strategies, and dialectical behavior techniques, using grief work, mindfulness, insight-oriented exploration, and behavioral interventions as appropriate. She emphasizes a respectful, goal-driven partnership where clients remain in charge of their process while receiving steady professional support.
Barbara welcomes individuals seeking help with stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, depression, grief, relationship and intimacy concerns, parenting and caregiving stress, career issues, and a range of other life challenges. Her decades of practice inform a pragmatic, compassionate approach to healing and growth.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Barbara integrates Internal Family Systems and Attachment-Based ideas with client-centered practice to adapt to online formats. Internal Family Systems helps people understand inner parts and their roles, which can be explored through reflective conversation and gentle guidance during video or phone sessions to address internal conflicts and trauma-related material. Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on patterns in relationships and emotional bonds, offering a way to explore trust, connection, and relational wounds through empathic dialogue and experiential exercises that translate well to remote sessions. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes the client's own expertise and pacing, creating space for clients to set goals and lead the work while the therapist provides nonjudgmental support and practical feedback.Finding the right mix of approaches is treated as a collaborative process. The therapist will help assess goals, preferences, and the issues at hand to decide whether to emphasize parts work, attachment exploration, CBT skills, or other techniques, and will adjust methods as progress unfolds.
Online sessions offer practical flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, allowing clients to access ongoing support from varied settings and at differing times. These formats can make consistent care easier to maintain and let therapists use the approaches above in ways that fit a client’s schedule and communication style.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
46+ years
Licensed
Colorado
Languages
English