Individual Therapy in New Jersey
Colleen Makowsky offers individual therapy for adults across New Jersey — practical, evidence-based, by secure video.
Individual therapy at Colleen Makowsky LPC is one-on-one work with a single counselor across New Jersey. Anxiety, low mood, life transitions, self-esteem, trauma-recovery, chronic stress, identity work, relationship-of-origin patterns — whatever brings you in, the work is practical and the sessions are real conversations.
When individual therapy is the right fit
Most couples who reach out aren’t in a single big crisis. They’re in a slow accumulation — small disagreements that didn’t resolve, communication patterns that became defaults, distance that crept in without anyone naming it. Marriage counseling is for naming that out loud, in a room where both people get heard.
Anxiety and chronic worry
Generalized worry, catastrophizing loops, physical anxiety in sleep or appetite or muscle tension, social anxiety, occasional panic. The thoughts get loud in the quiet moments, and the body keeps a tally even when the day looks fine on the outside. For deeper work on this specifically, see anxiety therapy in New Jersey.
Low mood and life transitions
Persistent low motivation, grief that didn’t have one single event, post-move or post-loss or post-relationship adjustment. The phrase that surfaces often is “I don’t recognize my own life right now.” For deeper work, see depression therapy in New Jersey.
Self-esteem and identity work
Quiet self-criticism that runs constantly in the background. Imposter feelings at work or in roles that look successful from the outside. Identity questions across career, relationship structure, or family role. The sentence that comes up is “I’ve been performing a version of me that doesn’t fit anymore.” For deeper work, see self-esteem and life transitions.
Trauma-recovery work
Past experience that still surfaces in the body, in sleep, or in the way close relationships unfold. Attachment wounds. Childhood patterns showing up in adult relationships, work, or parenting. This work is trauma-informed (CCTP credential) and paced to what your body can hold. For deeper work, see trauma therapy in New Jersey.
Chronic stress that has stopped being manageable
Job burnout that didn’t lift with a vacation. Caregiving overload that has no clear endpoint. Sustained-pressure exhaustion that sleep doesn’t repair. Stress that has become its own diagnosis, layered on top of whatever else is going on. We work on what you can shed, what you can change, and what you need to learn to carry differently.
Career and identity transitions
Pivot work — career shift, returning-to-school questions, post-promotion overwhelm, identity that was attached to the role you’re leaving. The work is figuring out what stays portable, what was the role rather than you, and what to build next. Not a resume conversation. A values conversation.
Relationship-of-origin patterns
Adult work on the family you grew up in — how those patterns show up in current relationships, work, parenting, friendship. This is solo work on family-of-origin material, not family-as-unit work. You’re the only one in the room. The patterns you name here travel with you into every other room.
Evidence-based individual therapy in New Jersey
Individual therapy at this practice uses a small set of evidence-based approaches matched to what you’re working on. We don’t switch modalities mid-session as a stunt. We match the approach to the work and stay with it long enough for traction. Here’s what’s on the menu.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT works on the link between thought, feeling, and behavior. We notice the automatic thoughts driving a reaction, test them against evidence, and build new responses. Strong evidence base for anxiety, depression, and the rumination loops most adults arrive with. Practical, structured, action-oriented.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
SFBT is action-first and future-oriented. Rather than excavating every old wound, we look at what’s working (even a little), what’s already shifted, and what one concrete step looks like next. Many adults respond to this faster than open-ended exploration — there’s traction inside three or four sessions.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT helps name values you want to live by — not values someone else handed you — and then drop the patterns pulling you away from them. Useful when the thing you’re working on isn’t “wrong thinking” so much as “I’m living in a way that doesn’t fit who I want to be.”
In addition to the three above, the work also draws on Motivational Interviewing (for ambivalence), EFT tapping (Emotional Freedom Techniques — body-based emotion work, NOT Emotion-Focused Therapy), and trauma-informed care backed by the CCTP credential. I’m not trained in EMDR or DBT — if a clinician has recommended either, I can refer you to a colleague who specializes.
What a session actually looks like
Most adults imagining therapy default to the cultural image — a quiet couch, a clinician taking notes, fifty silent minutes. Real sessions don’t look like that. They look more like a structured conversation between two adults, one of whom has training in the patterns the other is working on.
The first session
The first session is mostly orientation. You tell me what’s bringing you in. I ask a few questions about the patterns you’re noticing — when they show up, what makes them louder, what makes them quieter. By the end of the hour we have a working hypothesis and a rough plan. No homework, no assessment instruments, no diagnostic interview unless you specifically want one.
The first session isn’t a test. It’s the start of a conversation that gets sharper every week.
What ongoing sessions look like
Ongoing sessions run 38 to 53 minutes — most weeks land in the middle of that range. Insurance billing windows force the upper bound; the lower bound is the honest floor for productive work. We pick up where we left off, check in on whatever you tried since last week, and work on whatever’s loudest now.
Good therapy is practical. You should leave each session with something you can use — not just insight that stays in the room.
When the work changes shape
Most adults’ therapy doesn’t run one pattern start to finish. The work that brought you in often surfaces other work — older patterns, recent grief, a relationship issue you’d thought you’d resolved. We follow what’s most useful, not what was on the original list. The plan adjusts.
The work is matched to what you bring in, not to what fits a treatment protocol. The plan is real because you helped build it.
How we start — your first three steps
Reach out
Send a quick note through the contact form or call (551) 305-3742. The form is two fields — name and best way to reach you. Don’t include health details; we’ll talk through what’s going on verbally.
15-minute call (free)
Fifteen minutes by phone. You tell me what’s bringing you in. I tell you whether individual therapy is a fit, whether one of the more-specific pages (anxiety, depression, trauma) suits better, or whether I’d refer elsewhere.
First session, then ongoing work
Sessions run 38 to 53 minutes, by secure video, weekly. Most adult work runs three to twelve months — it varies. You’ll know inside three or four sessions whether the fit is right.
WHICH FORMAT FITS
Individual therapy vs couples therapy vs group support
Most adults aren’t sure which format fits best. Here’s the rough decision matrix.
Where adult patterns come from
Most patterns adults work on in therapy aren’t recent. They’re older — formed in family-of-origin, in early attachment, in earlier relationships, in cultural scripts. The patterns aren’t who you are. They’re scripts you learned, and scripts can be rewritten.
Family-of-origin scripts
How emotion was handled in the family you grew up in becomes your default template — whether anger was expressed or hidden, whether closeness was rewarded or punished, whether disappointment had a place. Adults often notice the template only when it conflicts with the life they’re building.
Attachment patterns
Early-attachment experiences shape what closeness feels safe — anxious patterns, avoidant patterns, secure patterns. None of these are sentences. Adults can move between them with focused work, and most therapy involves at least some attachment material.
Earlier-relationship templates
What each adult learned in earlier romantic, friend, or work relationships becomes a template here. Each disappointment or repair updated the model. We notice what the current template predicts and choose whether to keep it.
Cultural and contextual scripts
Scripts around gender, ethnicity, queer identity, religious upbringing, class, immigration — none of these get to be invisible in therapy. We name them out loud as part of the work, especially when they’re pulling against what you’re trying to build.
Signs it’s time to start individual therapy
Most adults wait too long. Either you’re “fine” (you’re not, but the bar is low) or things have to get bad before reaching out feels justified. The signs you’re past that line usually look like this.
None of these mean something is “wrong” with you. They mean it’s time to talk to someone with training.
Colleen Makowsky offers individual therapy across New Jersey
Colleen Makowsky
MA · LPC · NCC · CCTP · CAIMHP
Licensed counselor in Fort Lee, NJ. Adults and couples across all of New Jersey by secure video.
MA in Community Counseling, Montclair State University.
Trauma-informed (CCTP) · CBT · ACT · SFBT · MI · EFT tapping.
OUR LOCATION
Online counseling across New Jersey
I’m a service-area provider — I work with adults and couples statewide by secure video. My base is Fort Lee, NJ (Bergen County), but you can see me from anywhere in New Jersey.
Hours
Mon–Fri by appointment
Sat & Sun: Closed
Phone
(551) 305-3742
EXPLORE OTHER SERVICES
Other ways I work with adults across New Jersey
Couples Therapy · Anxiety Therapy · Depression Therapy · Trauma Therapy · Self-Esteem & Life Transitions
Not married — dating, partnered, or pre-engaged? See couples therapy in New Jersey.
Individual therapy FAQ
How long are sessions?
38 to 53 minutes. Most weeks land in the middle of that range.
How long does individual therapy take?
Three to twelve months for most adults — varies by what brought you in. Single-issue work (a specific transition, a clear pattern) often finishes faster. Trauma-recovery, identity, or long-pattern work often runs longer.
Do you take insurance?
Yes. Aetna, Cigna/Evernorth, Optum/UnitedHealthcare/Oxford, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Oscar, Medicare, and most EAPs. Medicaid is not accepted. Out-of-network superbill available on request. For details, see insurance and cost.
Do you do EMDR or DBT?
No. I’m not trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) or DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). If a clinician has recommended either, I can refer you to a colleague who specializes in that work. What I offer for trauma-recovery work is CBT, trauma-informed care (CCTP credential), SFBT, and EFT tapping (Emotional Freedom Techniques — not Emotion-Focused Therapy). For deeper trauma work, see trauma therapy in New Jersey.
What modality is best for me?
Most clients don’t need to pick a modality before the first session — that’s part of what we sort out together. CBT works well for anxiety, depression, and rumination loops. ACT works well for identity, values, and life-transition work. SFBT works well when you want traction fast. We match the approach to the work, not the other way around.
Do you do diagnoses?
Only when one is needed for insurance billing, and only after we’ve worked together long enough that the diagnosis is grounded in what I’ve actually seen. I’m not a diagnostic-testing practice — for psychological testing or formal evaluation, I refer to a colleague who does that work.
Can therapy work by video?
Yes — for most adults, for most work. Some kinds of work (severe substance use needing observation, active eating disorders needing medical monitoring) need a different level of care; I refer for those. For the vast majority of individual therapy, secure-video sessions work as well as the alternative, and the schedule flexibility makes the work easier to sustain.
What if I don’t know what to talk about?
That’s normal in the first few sessions. Part of my job is to ask the questions that surface what’s actually under the surface — not to wait for you to lead. By session three or four, most clients have a clearer sense of what’s loudest. We follow that.
RELATED SPECIALTIES
Anxiety Therapy in NJ · Depression Therapy in NJ · Trauma Therapy in NJ
READY TO START?
Schedule your free 15-minute consultation
Individual therapy works best when you’re ready to spend real time on what’s bringing you in. The free 15-minute call is for figuring out if this is the right fit, and for what.