About Colleen Makowsky, LPC
Licensed Professional Counselor – New Jersey LPC #37PC00901900
I’m Colleen Makowsky, a Licensed Professional Counselor in New Jersey. I work with adults and couples through anxiety, depression, trauma-recovery, grief, life transitions, relational strain, and disordered-eating or substance-use patterns at a non-medical level.
My practice is online — NJ statewide telehealth, based in Fort Lee, Bergen County. Sessions run 38 to 53 minutes. Most clients work with me for 3 to 12 months, though that varies.
Insurance accepted for Aetna, Cigna/Evernorth, Optum/UnitedHealthcare/Oxford, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Oscar, Medicare, and most EAPs. Out-of-network superbills available.
Reach out for a free 15-minute call
Good therapy is practical
Good therapy is practical. You should leave each session with something you can use — not just insight that stays in the room.
— Colleen Makowsky, LPC
When I started doing this work, I noticed how often therapy ended up feeling like a place where smart people had insightful conversations that didn’t change much. That’s not what I do. I’m direct, I’m specific, and I’ll ask you questions that point somewhere — not because I have an agenda for your life, but because vague questions get vague answers.
I work in a second-person voice: “you,” not “one.” I assume you’re the expert on your own life. My job is to give you tools, frameworks, and the kind of honest reflection that’s hard to get from people who love you.
Most weeks, the work is small and concrete. A pattern named. A skill tried. A conversation rehearsed. That’s how the change accumulates.
For how this shows up week-to-week, see individual therapy or couples therapy.
What Colleen brings to the work
Community Counseling
Montclair State University
NJ LPC #37PC00901900
She holds an MA in Community Counseling from Montclair State University, where she also completed the 18-credit Certified Alcohol & Drug Counseling Certificate Program. The certificate program is coursework that informs how she works with adults in early recovery or those concerned about substance use, alongside CBT and Motivational Interviewing. She is not credentialed in the credential associated with that program.
She keeps her training current with continuing education in trauma-informed care, ACT, and Motivational Interviewing. The work doesn’t stand still, and neither should the people doing it.
How sessions tend to feel
Direct, specific, non-vague
I ask questions that point somewhere. We name the actual pattern, the actual feeling, the actual ask. Vague questions get vague answers; specific questions get traction.
Trauma-informed at the foundation
The CCTP credential is the floor, not a feature. Trauma shows up under more diagnoses than most counselors acknowledge; the pacing of the work respects what your body can hold.
Honest about scope
I refer out for what I don’t do — EMDR, DBT, couples EFT, medication, gender-affirming letters. I go deep on what I do. The free 15-minute call sorts which is which.
How Colleen Makowsky ended up doing this
I came to counseling the long way. My first work was in environments that taught me how much of life is shaped by patterns nobody named — family-of-origin patterns, work patterns, the way money or shame or grief gets handled. I noticed how often capable adults were stuck not because they lacked insight but because nobody had ever sat with them through the practical work of changing something.
Graduate school at Montclair State sharpened the clinical lens. The 18-credit substance-use certificate work added a vocabulary for how habits compound and how recovery actually unfolds. The CCTP training built trauma-informed care into the foundation of how I work — because trauma shows up under more diagnoses than most counselors acknowledge.
What I do now — adults and couples by secure video across New Jersey — is the version of counseling I wanted to exist when I was younger. Practical. Direct. Not married to any one method. Honest about scope: I refer out for what I don’t do, and I go deep on what I do.
What Colleen Makowsky does — and what she refers out
If you’re not sure where your situation fits, the free 15-minute call is for figuring that out together.
EXPLORE THE WORK
Where this shows up week-to-week
Individual Therapy · Couples Therapy · Marriage Counseling · LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy · Insurance & Cost
READY TO REACH OUT?
Schedule your free 15-minute consultation
No pressure, no commitment, no diagnostic checklist. We talk through what’s bringing you in and figure out together whether we’re a fit.
Mon–Fri by appointment · Insurance accepted · NJ statewide telehealth