Yuridia (Valerie) Polonsky

Yuridia (Valerie) Polonsky is a Florida licensed clinical social worker with 15 years of experience. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and major life changes. She works in both English and Spanish and aims to make sessions clear and practical.

Valerie uses straightforward conversation to help people name what matters to them. She listens for patterns that keep someone stuck and offers tools to interrupt those patterns. Sessions often include goal-setting, skills practice, and checking what works between meetings.

Her approach draws from several evidence-informed methods. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people spot thoughts that feed worry and try small experiments to test them. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy supports deciding what values matter most and taking steps toward them even when feelings are hard.

Attachment-Based and Client-Centered work shape how she builds trust and stays focused on each person's experience. Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills are used when emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness are priorities. Valerie adapts methods to each person's pace and needs.

People reach out to address grief, relationship and intimacy issues, parenting strain, sleep problems, addiction concerns, career stress, and ADHD-related challenges. She also supports those facing abandonment, body image, caregiver stress, or blended family issues. The aim is steady progress, not quick fixes.

Approaches that translate to online sessions

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify what matters to them and take action toward those values, even when difficult feelings are present. It is often useful for life transitions, anxiety, and when someone wants clearer direction. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors through small experiments; it works well for worry, low mood, and sleep difficulties. Attachment-Based Therapy pays attention to how past relationships shape present patterns and can help when intimacy, abandonment, or communication problems are central.

Finding the best approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most helpful, then adapt methods over time. That collaborative process means the plan can change as progress is made or new priorities emerge.

If you are considering online sessions, confirm the current session options before booking since formats are not listed here. Online work can make it easier to fit meetings into a busy week, reduce travel time, and allow for shorter check-ins between in-person visits. Some approaches lend themselves to skill practice and worksheets that are easy to use remotely, and therapists can coach behavioral experiments that fit into daily life.