Christy Alten
Experienced counselor blending faith and evidence
LPC-MH, LMHC Iowa
- Experience
- 31 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Stress, Anxiety, Addictions, Self esteem
- Approaches
- Gottman Method, Client-Centered Therapy
- Languages
- English
About Christy
Christy Alten is a Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor (LPC-MH) and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) practicing in Iowa. She has more than 31 years of experience helping people who are struggling with addictions, mood challenges, and life changes.
Background and approach
Christy takes a compassionate, faith-informed approach and believes healing and purpose are possible. She focuses on practical steps people can use right away.
Sessions emphasize clear goals, skills for managing stress and anxiety, and ways to rebuild daily routines that support sleep and mood. Christy blends evidence-based tools such as cognitive behavioral work and dialectical skills with relational methods like the Gottman Method when appropriate.
Christy also brings an existential perspective to therapy, inviting people to examine meaning, values, and life direction. She integrates spiritual beliefs when clients want that included and aims to match therapeutic work to each person's values.
Her background includes long experience with addictions, 12-step informed care, and interventions for grief, codependency, and family-of-origin issues. She has over two decades of experience supervising and developing other clinicians and offers grounded support for helpers who need professional coaching.
Christy approaches sessions without judgment and aims to create a steady, hopeful space for honest work. To begin, a short matching questionnaire is completed and scheduling is handled together.
Sessions can take place by video, phone, live chat, or text messaging based on what fits each person's life.
How Christy’s Approaches Work Online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and building a trusting relationship. It helps people feel heard and makes room for personal values and spiritual concerns to guide work together.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It teaches practical tools to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, and change patterns that keep problems going.
The Gottman Method brings simple relationship tools and communication skills into sessions when couples-style work is helpful. It emphasizes specific exercises to reduce conflict and increase understanding between partners.
Christy treats finding the right approach as a collaborative process. She will talk with each person about their goals, values, and preferences and adapt methods to fit what feels most useful. Decisions about techniques and homework are made together so the plan matches real life.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions allow face-to-face interaction, phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited, live chat suits brief check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, parenting, and busy schedules.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
31+ years
Licensed in
South Dakota, Iowa
Languages
English