Virginia Ballantyne, LCSW

Virginia Ballantyne is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW #98267) who offers compassionate, strengths-based care to adults navigating relationship challenges, trauma, mood concerns, addiction, and life transitions. She identifies as a bi-racial woman and uses she/her pronouns. With a nonjudgmental, humanistic orientation, she draws on clinical training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and solution-focused methods while tailoring interventions to each person’s history and needs.

Her practice emphasizes empowerment and collaboration - helping people access their own strengths, build practical coping skills, and explore patterns that affect mood, communication, and intimacy. She provides a sex-positive atmosphere where questions about sexual identity, desires, and alternative sexual cultures can be discussed openly, and she affirms LGBTQ+ identities while supporting survivors of intimate partner violence, family-related trauma, and substance-impacted upbringings.

Virginia has experience in nonprofit and county service settings and values social justice, authenticity, and client self-determination. She is currently accepting new clients who reside in California and offers sessions by phone, video, or live chat. Messages are checked periodically throughout the day and she responds as quickly as possible.

Evidence-Informed Approaches and Online Care

Client-centered therapy emphasizes listening and respect, creating a space where the client’s goals and personal strengths guide the work; this approach helps with issues that benefit from exploration, validation, and empowerment. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thought and behavior patterns and teaching practical skills to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) combines skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness, which can be especially helpful for people dealing with intense emotions, relationship conflicts, or self-destructive patterns.

Finding the right approach is often part of the therapeutic journey, and she works collaboratively with each person to tailor methods to their needs, goals, and preferences. This may mean blending elements from different models to fit a client’s life and values.

Online therapy through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging offers flexibility for scheduling, reduces travel barriers, and makes it easier to maintain continuity during life transitions. These options allow licensed professionals and therapists to meet clients where they are and adapt session formats to what works best for each individual.