Pauline Bernard, LCSW, CSW

Pauline Bernard is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people move forward during life transitions, relationship challenges, and periods of stress or low resilience. With eight years of clinical experience, she blends practical, evidence-based strategies with a psychodynamic perspective she developed during graduate training. Her credentials include LCSW and CSW - LCSW indicates Licensed Clinical Social Worker and CSW indicates Clinical Social Worker - and her academic background includes a master’s degree from Smith College, a PhD in history and social sciences, and a masters in history. Smith College is noted in her training for integrating rigorous clinical work with psychodynamic approaches and a social justice lens.

Having lived and worked in the United States, France, and Italy, she understands the particular strains of building connection and stability in unfamiliar places. Pauline offers bilingual and trilingual competence in English, French, and Italian, which can help when cultural context matters in therapy. She focuses on stress, anxiety, relationships, trauma and abuse, self esteem, and career concerns, with additional attention to forgiveness, guilt and shame, isolation and loneliness, and life purpose.

Her work begins with an introductory session where clients share their story and goals. From that starting point she collaborates with each person to identify underlying factors contributing to distress and to create a plan that supports greater integration, resilience, and well-being.

Evidence-Informed Approaches and Online Therapy

Pauline integrates psychodynamic methods with practical, evidence-based therapeutic techniques to address the issues people bring to therapy. Psychodynamic work explores how past experiences, relationships, and internal patterns shape current feelings and behaviors, which can be especially helpful for relationship difficulties, trauma aftereffects, and long-standing patterns of shame or isolation. Her use of evidence-based techniques focuses on concrete skills and strategies to manage stress and anxiety, build self esteem, and strengthen coping in the face of career or life transitions.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic journey. Pauline partners with clients to assess needs, goals, and personal preferences, adapting methods over time so the work remains collaborative and relevant to each person’s situation.

Online therapy with Pauline is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, which makes it easier to fit sessions into busy schedules and to connect across distances. These options increase accessibility for clients living in Colorado or abroad and allow flexible rhythms of support while maintaining continuity of care with a licensed professional.