Valerie Sepulveda

I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker practicing throughout New Mexico via telehealth — which means I can meet you wherever you are in the state, without the commute or the waiting room.

I work primarily with adults who are going through something hard: anxiety that's become a constant background noise, depression that makes even small things feel like a lot, grief that doesn't follow a timeline, or the kind of stress that builds up when your life has changed faster than you've been able to keep up with. I also have a particular interest in working with healthcare professionals and people in high-demand careers who are used to holding everything together for others — and who rarely get to put that down.

A few things I think matter in therapy: I won't give you homework that doesn't make sense for your actual life, I'll be direct with you without being clinical about it, and I'll take your goals seriously rather than deciding for you what "better" should look like.

My work is grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — meaning we'll look at the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and we'll actively work to shift patterns that are keeping you stuck. I layer in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for clients who need help loosening anxiety's grip without fighting every anxious thought, and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) when rumination or mood cycling is part of the picture.

For clients who've been through trauma, I'm trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), a structured, evidence-based approach that helps you process what happened without having to relive it repeatedly.

In practice, this means our sessions are collaborative and goal-oriented — there's a structure, but it flexes around what you actually need that week. I'm not a blank-screen therapist; I'll ask questions, share observations, and offer concrete strategies alongside the space to process.

The first session is mostly me learning about you — what's going on, how long it's been this way, what you've already tried, and what you're hoping therapy might actually do for you. I'll ask a lot of questions, but not in a checklist way. I want to understand how things feel from the inside, not just the facts of the situation.

By the end of that first conversation, we'll have a sense of whether we're a good fit, what we'd focus on together, and roughly how frequently to meet. You don't need to have your story organized before we talk — you can come exactly as you are. Most people leave the first session feeling like they've been heard in a way that's different from what they expected.

Sessions are 50 minutes and conducted via secure video. Scheduling and insurance verification happen through Headway before we meet, so all of that is handled before you arrive.