Alina Gastesi-De Armas

Alina Gastesi-De Armas is a Florida licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) with 28 years of professional experience. She works with people facing stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, low self-esteem, depression, and big life changes. She also focuses on communication problems, forgiveness, guilt and shame, social anxiety and questions about life purpose.

Alina centers sessions on the person’s own story and strengths. She helps clients name what feels stuck and notice which values matter most. Conversations tend to be practical, with attention to thoughts, emotions, and everyday actions that can make things feel more manageable.

Her approach draws on a mix of methods. That can include cognitive behavioral tools to spot unhelpful thinking, acceptance and commitment ideas to clarify values, and client-centered listening to reflect what matters to each person. She may also use techniques from dialectical behavior therapy and existential therapy when they fit the issue at hand.

Sessions are offered in English and Spanish, and she accepts international clients. Alina encourages small steps that align with a client’s goals, such as short behavioral experiments or focused skill practice between meetings. She aims to help people build on what already works in their lives.

To begin, clients complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule an initial meeting. The first sessions typically review current struggles, goals for therapy, and what methods feel most useful moving forward.

How therapeutic approaches are used in online sessions

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on identifying personal values and taking small committed actions toward them while accepting difficult thoughts and feelings. It can help when someone feels stuck or unsure about next steps. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact and uses practical exercises to change patterns that cause distress. It is often useful for anxiety, low mood, and unhelpful thinking.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with the client about goals and preferences, then choose methods together. That collaborative process helps decide whether ACT, CBT, client-centered listening, or other techniques fit best for the issues at hand.

The original biography does not list specific online session formats, so confirm current options before booking. Many people find online sessions make it easier to fit therapy into a busy day, for example by cutting travel time or allowing shorter check-ins during a work break. Online work can support practical skill practice between meetings and make joining sessions from a different location simpler. Licensed professionals can adapt ACT and CBT exercises to an online setting so clients can try behavioral tasks and thought records between sessions.