- Guilt and shame
- Communication skills
- Substance issues
About Joy
Joy Nussen is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) licensed in California and Oregon with 32 years of experience. She works with individual adult men and women and focuses on concerns such as depression, anxiety, relationship conflict, addictions, trauma, grief, and stress. Joy also addresses issues like guilt and shame, attachment and abandonment, codependency, and problems that come from family of origin patterns.
Her sessions are conversational and practical. She pays attention to the words people use, invites metaphors, and sometimes uses gentle humor. Joy describes a compact model she calls CHIPS to look at thinking patterns, communication habits, control issues, and how people use substances or distractions to cope.
Joy draws on several evidence-based techniques and pulls ideas from solution-focused work, dialectical behavior concepts, narrative practices, and experiential methods. In practice that looks like checking unhelpful narratives, strengthening communication skills, and building concrete coping tools for stress and impulses.
She has worked in many settings and with diverse backgrounds, including telehealth formats, which shaped her sense that people share basic needs for purpose and meaning. Joy focuses on helping clients name patterns, try small experiments, and notice what changes in their daily life.
Sessions are offered in English and operate through a subscription model that can be canceled at any time. Prospective clients complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule a first session through the platform's online options.
How her approaches translate to online work
Joy mentions several practical approaches she uses, including solution-focused ideas and narrative techniques. Solution-focused work concentrates on small, doable steps and real-life skills to change what isn’t working now. Narrative techniques help people notice the stories they tell themselves and try alternate ways of describing events to reduce self-blame.She also draws on concepts from dialectical behavior approaches and experiential practices. Dialectical behavior concepts teach specific skills for managing intense emotions, tolerating distress, and improving relationships. Experiential methods involve trying small exercises in session to notice bodily reactions and new ways of responding to memories or guilt feelings.
Finding the right approach is collaborative. The therapist will work with each person to decide which methods fit their goals, needs, and preferences. That choice may shift over time as progress and real-life demands become clearer.
Practical benefits of online work include fitting sessions into a busy week and keeping continuity when schedules change. The biography notes telehealth experience, but it does not list which specific session formats are currently offered; confirm available formats before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to maintain regular check-ins, practice skills between meetings, and use brief calls or video when that best fits daily life.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Experience
32+ years
Listed in
California, Oregon
Languages
English
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of concerns does she address?
She works with stress, anxiety, relationship conflict, trauma and abuse, grief, depression, addictions, and related issues such as guilt and shame.
How would she approach feelings of guilt or shame?
She uses a model that looks at thinking patterns, communication, control, and coping behaviors to help people name and test unhelpful narratives around guilt and shame.
What is her professional background?
She is an LMFT with 32 years of clinical experience working in a variety of settings and with diverse adult populations.
Where is she licensed and based?
She holds LMFT credentials in California and Oregon and practices with an Oregon location listed.
Which languages are supported in sessions?
Sessions are offered in English.
What session formats are used?
The original biography worked in telehealth formats; please confirm current session options before booking.
How is cost handled?
Cost varies with location and sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin working with her?
Select the See online therapy options button, complete the short matching questionnaire, and schedule a first session.
Online talk therapy is not emergency care. If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, use the crisis numbers.