Tracy Rider , LMHC

Tracy Rider is a New York licensed clinical mental health counselor (LMHC) with ten years of experience helping people navigate stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, anger, self-esteem concerns, and major life transitions. Her work emphasizes respect, sensitivity, and compassion, and she develops individualized treatment plans that reflect each person’s story and strengths.

She brings specialized training to trauma-focused work, including EMDRIA certification as an EMDR specialist and a post-graduate degree in trauma and dissociation. She also has training in clinical hypnosis through the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and is familiar with Internal Family Systems, which supports work with internal parts and relational patterns. Tracy’s clinical foundation includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, existential perspectives, EMDR, the Gottman Method, and narrative approaches, all applied with systems thinking to understand how change in one area affects the whole life.

Before earning an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Regent University, Tracy spent eight years as a volunteer counseling paraprofessional with the United States Army, serving veterans and their families. She holds a BA in theology from NBC and completed life coach training through the iNLP Center, a program accredited by the International Coaching Federation and recognized by the National Board for Certified Counselors. Her coaching training complements her counseling practice by focusing on client empowerment and helping people find clarity and direction rather than offering prescriptive advice.

Personal experience also informs her approach: more than 30 years of marriage, parenting, and living with chronic illness contribute to the steadiness, empathy, and practical perspective she brings to therapy. She typically structures contact around scheduled sessions, using messaging as a supportive supplement and maintaining set work times to model healthy boundaries and work-life balance.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care with Tracy Rider

Tracy Rider integrates several evidence-informed approaches to tailor therapy to each person’s needs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress, and to build practical coping skills. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma-focused method that helps people process distressing memories and reduce their emotional intensity, often supporting recovery from post-traumatic stress and abuse. Existential Therapy explores questions of meaning, choice, and values, helping people facing life transitions, purpose concerns, or deep feelings of isolation to clarify what matters and to make more authentic choices.

Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Tracy works with clients to consider their goals, preferences, and life context, and she adapts techniques over time so therapy remains relevant and effective. This collaborative stance helps clients feel engaged in planning and pacing their work.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility: sessions can occur by video call or phone, and live chat or text-based messaging can supplement scheduled meetings for ongoing support between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives, overcome geographic barriers, and maintain continuity of care with licensed professionals and therapists who coordinate methods that fit each client’s situation.