Cristina Spataro, LMHC

Cristina Spataro is a New York State licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) with 18 years of experience. She works with people facing stress, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, parenting pressures, and major life changes. She also supports concerns such as addiction, trauma, grief, intimacy-related issues, and questions around identity and LGBT matters.

She keeps sessions straightforward and focused. Conversations aim to clarify what feels off and to find practical next steps. Cristina uses Client-Centered work to listen closely and let the person’s priorities lead the pace of therapy. She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify unhelpful thinking and try different ways of responding.

Her background includes long experience helping people during crises and in ongoing difficulty. That experience shows in a preference for clear goals and small, manageable changes. She often helps clients sort competing choices about relationships, career, parenting, and caregiving responsibilities.

Cristina pays attention to how past experiences such as abandonment, adoption and foster care, or caregiver stress shape current feeling and behavior. She works on communication problems, family problems, self-esteem, and midlife questions, and can discuss practical steps for career direction and life purpose.

Sessions are practical and down-to-earth. Cristina encourages people to test new approaches between meetings and to notice what changes. The focus is on short-term problem solving when needed and on building sustainable habits over time.

Approaches used online and how they help