Cora Strickland, LCMHC

Cora Strickland is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) practicing in North Carolina who brings practical, experience-based care to individuals and families. She owns and operates a private mental health practice in Burlington, NC, where she provides both individual and family therapy to children and adults. Over more than 15 years in private practice, she has worked with a wide range of concerns including stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, depression, self-esteem struggles, adjustment to life changes, and PTSD.

Cora uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Interviewing as the foundation of her work, helping clients explore how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors influence one another. Her approach incorporates techniques such as cognitive restructuring to identify and challenge unhelpful thinking patterns, behavioral activation to restore meaningful routines and activities, investigation of automatic thoughts and cognitive distortions, acceptance exercises, relaxation practices, and motivational strategies to support readiness for change.

She holds an undergraduate degree from East Carolina University and a master’s degree from North Carolina Central University. In addition to her primary specialties, she has experience addressing relationship and family conflicts, parenting challenges, career difficulties, bipolar disorder, and ADHD. Cora aims to help people build insight, develop coping skills, and make sustainable changes that support healthier daily functioning.

Therapeutic Approaches for Online Care

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps clients identify the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions. Through gentle examination of automatic thoughts and patterns, CBT offers practical tools like cognitive restructuring and behavioral activation to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and problematic coping behaviors. Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, client-centered approach that explores motivation for change and strengthens a person’s own reasons for taking steps forward - it is especially useful when clients feel ambivalent about change or are working on addictive behaviors.

Finding the right therapeutic approach is part of the process. Cora works collaboratively with each person to determine which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences, and she adjusts the plan as progress unfolds. This collaborative stance helps ensure therapy stays relevant and effective for the individual.

Online therapy offers flexibility in how sessions are delivered - by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging - allowing clients to access care from home or while traveling. These options make it easier to fit sessions into busy lives, maintain continuity of support, and engage with licensed professionals in a way that suits personal schedules and communication styles.