- Guilt and shame
- Trauma-aware skills
- Mindfulness tools
About Malisa
Malisa Hepner is an LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Oklahoma with three years of professional experience. She works with people facing stress, anxiety, relationship strain, family conflict, and low self-esteem. She also helps with life changes, grief and loss, and issues like guilt and shame.
She describes herself as a non-traditional therapist who speaks plainly and shares perspectives she has found useful. She draws on her own experience with healing complex post-traumatic stress to inform how she works with clients. Sessions focus on practical skills and direct conversation rather than vague theory.
Her approach blends techniques from attachment-based work, dialectical behavior therapy, emotionally-focused therapy, mindfulness, and solution-focused methods. She aims to help clients notice patterns, practice new ways of reacting, and try small experiments between sessions. Expect concrete tools for stress management and for handling intense emotions.
Malisa pays attention to how relationships shape current reactions. She helps people name what they feel and test different responses in everyday life. She also brings discussion of values and forgiveness into work when clients want that.
People who come for help with guilt and shame often focus on specific memories or ongoing self-criticism. In those cases she combines trauma-aware strategies and skills training to reduce overwhelm and increase choices about how to respond. Practical steps and frank feedback are a regular part of her style.
How her approaches translate to online sessions
Attachment-based work looks at how past and current relationships influence reactions today. Online sessions use conversation to identify relationship patterns and practice new ways of relating. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, focuses on emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. In an online session this often means learning short, practical skills you can use between meetings. Emotionally-Focused Therapy centers on understanding and changing emotional responses in relationships, helping people name what they feel and request different interactions.Finding the right mix of methods is part of the work. She collaborates with clients to choose which approaches to try based on the client's goals, current struggles, and preferences. That collaborative process helps decide whether to emphasize skills practice, emotion-focused conversations, or attachment-oriented reflections.
The biography does not list specific session formats, so confirm current options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy day, shorten travel time, and allow for shorter check-ins when needed. It also supports trying out new skills in the context of everyday life and bringing notes or prompts into a session for focused practice.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
3+ years
Listed in
Oklahoma
Languages
English
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does she help with?
She works with stress, anxiety, relationship and family concerns, self-esteem, coping with life changes, grief and loss, and related issues such as guilt and shame.
How would she approach feelings of guilt or shame?
She uses trauma-aware strategies and skills training to help people notice triggers, manage intense emotions, and try different responses in daily life.
What is her clinical background?
She has three years of professional experience and identifies as a non-traditional therapist who combines personal healing experience with clinical methods.
What credential does she hold and where is she based?
She is an LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker licensed in Oklahoma.
Does she work in languages other than English?
Sessions are offered in English.
Can people outside the United States work with her?
She does not accept international clients at this time.
How are sessions paid for?
Cost varies with location and sessions are provided through a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin a first session?
Click the See online therapy options button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule your first session.
Online talk therapy is not emergency care. If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, use the crisis numbers.