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Benia Thomas

NY LCSW 087655, NJ LCSW 44SC06278100
Credentials
NY LCSW 087655, NJ LCSW 44SC06278100
NPI Number
1275084410
Location
New Jersey
Languages
English
Benia Thomas
12 years experience | Counselor of Color

About Benia Thomas

Benia Thomas is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who received her Master of Social Work degree from Fordham University in New York with an emphasis in children, youth, and families. Benia completed her bachelor’s degree in Social Work at Lehman College, Bronx, NY.

Benia began her career working with children and families in the New York City foster care system. She went on to work with incarcerated women with severe mental illness, facilitating personal empowerment and psychoeducation groups and providing individual counseling. In addition, she was a clinical supervisor, in which she provided clinical supervision for Master level Social Workers.

Her areas of expertise include, stress, anxiety and depression, grief and loss, family/relationship issues, personal growth, and LGBTQ+ related issues. She especially enjoys working with adolescents and young adults. As a lesbian who has been working with the LGBTQ+ community on a professional basis for over ten years. This background provides me with unique expertise on issues that tend to be a part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender experience.

Benia believes that healing is a collaborative endeavor that requires honest caring without judgment, and cooperatively assists her clients in clarifying their goals for treatment. Rather than adopting one methodology for all individuals and issues, she draws from a variety of methods to create a tailored approach for each individual and situation. As a therapist, she is warm, open, encouraging, and direct. Benia considers herself an active therapist, combining experience, education, creativity, and sense of humor with a down-to-earth, realistic approach to counseling.

Your story, your pain, and your collection of struggles are unique to you. There is no one size fits all approach to therapy. Together, we will spend time understanding exactly what you are experiencing and why, so that when you start making changes that improve your life, they will stick.

Licenses

LCSW
087655
LCSW
44SC06278100

Professional experience

  • Anger management
  • Career difficulties
  • Compassion fatigue
  • Coping with life changes
  • Depression
  • Family conflicts
  • Grief
  • Intimacy-related issues
  • LGBT
  • Parenting issues
  • Relationship issues
  • Self esteem
  • Stress, Anxiety
  • Trauma and abuse

Additional Focus Areas

  • Abandonment
  • Adoption and foster care
  • Attachment issues
  • Blended family issues
  • Body image
  • Caregiver issues and stress
  • Codependency
  • Commitment issues
  • Communication problems
  • Control issues
  • Divorce and separation
  • Domestic violence
  • Emptiness
  • Family problems
  • Forgiveness
  • Gender dysphoria
  • Guilt and shame
  • HIV / AIDS
  • Impulsivity
  • Isolation / loneliness
  • Jealousy
  • Life purpose
  • Money and financial issues
  • Mood disorders
  • Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
  • Post-traumatic stress
  • Prejudice and discrimination
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
  • Self-harm
  • Self-love
  • Sexuality
  • Social anxiety and phobia
  • Women's issues
  • Workplace issues
  • Young adult issues

Clinical Approaches

  • Client-Centered Therapy
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Mindfulness Therapy
  • Solution-Focused Therapy

Languages

  • English

12 Reviews

“Her intelligence, caring, honesty and attitude is perfect for me”

“Benia is an intelligent and empathetic therapist whose gentle approach helps me to take inventory of the great and not-so-great in my life in a nonjudgmental way so that I can take action.”

“Benia is one of the most compassionate and honest therapists around. Her approach really pushed me to be introspective and critical but also taught me self-compassion and boundary-building. She keeps it real, but also meets you where you are and I think that’s what makes her such an incredible therapist.”

“I've always been skeptical of therapy but by partner wanted to do it to enrich our relationship. I'm so glad we did. She has helped us understand each other better than before and offers great advice on how to work on ourselves. I would recommend Benia to anyone! I'm just sad we hit our session limit and have to figure out how to get back in touch with her to start them back up.”

“Benia is so wonderful. She's helped me more in a couple sessions than my old therapist did in six months. She listens and points things out that hadn't occurred to me, and she encourages me to do concrete things to protect my peace which can be hard but way more helpful than someone just telling me what I want to hear. I'd probably still be stuck in the same unhealthy patterns if not for Benia. She's honest, down to earth, and compassionate, and I am so grateful to her.”

“I appreciate Benia’s style, she asks helpful questions to keep me on track and tells me I have all the answers, which builds my confidence when I do figure out what’s going on for me.”

“Overall thankful the support.”

“Benia is so supportive and understanding. She creates a very open and comfortable environment that makes it easy to speak to her. I love her honesty and straightforwardness, which helps really put things into perspective. I would recommend her to everyone.”

“Benia Thomas was kind and had a lot of patience with me so I could open up about my problems on my own time. Unfortunately, I'll have to switch to a different program to find one that can be covered by insurance.”

“She has been very accommodating and I appreciate that so much.”

“Benia Thomas has been there for me in every way she can be. She offers advice and support on the topics at the forefront of my mind.”

“Benia really helped me with some of the issues I was facing by putting things in to perspectives I hadn't thought of before. Our sessions motivated me to work past the issues so I could be more productive in things I wanted to do to keep myself healthy physically and mentally. I'm looking forward to continue sessions with Benia.”

These reviews represent a few of the most recent positive reviews from the therapist's clients on BetterHelp. Some people's experience may be different.
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