Kathleen Cates-Richardson, LMFT
Iowa · 16 years in practice
Kathleen Cates-Richardson is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 16 years of experience.
License and registration
- LMFT, Iowa
- 000370 · expires September 2026
- LMFT, Arizona
- LMFT-16264 · expires December 2026
- NPI
- 1104062298 · national provider identifier
- Years in practice
- 16
- Languages
- English
Details are as listed on the therapist's public professional profile. You can check the license with the issuing state board, and the NPI with the national registry.
About Kathleen
Kathleen Cates-Richardson is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 16 years of experience. She helps people facing anxiety, depression, grief, and problems with intimacy. Her approach is calm and direct, and she aims to make it easier to talk about hard things.
She often uses Existential therapy to look at meaning, choice, and how life changes affect daily living. Kathleen also draws on client-centered work to create a respectful, nonjudgmental space.
Background and approach
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques are used when practical steps and habits can reduce symptoms. In sessions she helps people address addictions, relationship strain, trauma and abuse, and sleep difficulties. She also supports clients dealing with abandonment, adoption and foster care histories, aging concerns, autism, and body image struggles.
Practical coping skills and clearer communication are common focuses in her work. Kathleen keeps sessions focused on what matters to each person. She listens for values and priorities, then helps translate those into small, doable changes.
Her style is collaborative rather than prescriptive, and she guides clients toward choices that fit their lives. She is licensed as an LMFT in Iowa and Arizona and offers services in English. For people starting therapy, she emphasizes steady progress over quick fixes.
The work often combines talking, skill practice, and checking how changes land in everyday life.
Focus areas and approaches
Everything Kathleen lists on their public professional profile, in their own terms.
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
- Intimacy-related issues
- Depression
- Sleeping disorders
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Postpartum depression
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Approaches Kathleen names
- Existential Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Jungian Therapy
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
Naming an approach is not evidence of training in it. This directory copies what each therapist lists and does not check training records.
Online support
How Kathleen’s approaches translate to online care
Existential therapy looks at meaning, values, and life choices and can help when someone feels stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure about next steps. It focuses on the big questions that often come up with grief, relationship shifts, or major life changes.Client-centered work places the person’s experience at the center of sessions. The therapist listens with empathy and follows what matters most to the client, which can make it easier to open up about sensitive topics like trauma or intimacy issues.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers concrete tools to change unhelpful thoughts and habits, which is useful for depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and coping with addiction cravings. Exercises and short home practices are often used between sessions.
Finding the right approach is a joint process. Kathleen will talk with each person about their goals, preferences, and what feels most helpful, then adjust the mix of methods over time. Clients are invited to give feedback so care matches their needs.
Online therapy with video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging makes it easier to fit sessions into busy lives. Video is good for deeper conversation and visual cues, phone can work when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging supports quick check-ins or ongoing reflection. These options increase flexibility and help people stick with the work.
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Questions people ask
What concerns does she help with?
Kathleen works with people facing addictions, relationship difficulties, trauma and abuse, intimacy-related issues, depression, and sleep problems. She also addresses many related issues such as abandonment, caregiver stress, and body image.
What is her therapeutic style like?
Her style blends a thoughtful, meaning-focused stance with practical skill building. Sessions combine listening, reflection, and concrete steps clients can try between meetings.
How long has she been practicing?
She has 16 years of professional experience working with people across a range of concerns and life stages.
Where is she licensed and located?
She is an LMFT licensed in Iowa and Arizona and is based in Iowa for regional practice details.
Which languages are supported?
Sessions are offered in English and she accepts international clients.
What session formats are available?
She offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules and needs.
How are sessions paid for?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin therapy with her?
To get started, choose the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule a session based on the therapist's availability.
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