01 · Who Jessica works with

Jessica works with stress, Anxiety, addictions and trauma and abuse

Jessica lists 15 specialisms and 21 further focus areas. Specialisms are the subjects Jessica chose to list first, which is the closest a listing gets to “this is my actual practice”.

02 · In Jessica's own words

What Jessica says about the work

Reproduced in full and unedited - not summarised, not tightened, not rewritten in a house voice.

Life rarely unravels neatly or on a predictable timeline. Whether you are navigating an acute crisis, facing a sudden crossroads, or carrying the quiet, exhausting weight of chronic pain and medical trauma, you deserve support that is clear, grounded, and immediately useful. As a licensed therapist in Iowa practicing for 15+ years, I provide direct, compassionate care designed to help you cut through the overwhelm and regain your footing.

My work spans focused, short-term stabilization as well as deeper therapeutic support for complex life challenges:

Targeted Crisis Intervention & Single-Session Insight: When you are at a breaking point or facing an urgent dilemma, you don't always need months of open-ended discussion-you need clarity right now. I offer dedicated, one-time crisis appointments designed for emotional triage, objective perspective, and rapid insight. These high-impact sessions are solution-focused, helping you de-escalate anxiety, identify your core problem, and leave with a clear, actionable plan.

Chronic Pain, Cancer History & Medical Trauma: Living with unpredictable health, a history of cancer, or persistent physical pain impacts every aspect of daily functioning and identity. We address the profound grief, medical fatigue, scan-related anxiety, and systemic isolation that often accompany illness-without platitudes, toxic positivity, or minimizing your lived reality.

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) & Actionable Tools: Therapy is an active partnership. We focus on untangling from guilt, shame, and fear so you can make values-aligned choices, even in difficult circumstances. Structured journaling, purposeful exercises, and real-world takeaways are integrated into our work to ensure progress extends into your everyday routine.

Broad Clinical Support: In addition to crisis stabilization and health-related trauma, I work with individuals navigating life transitions, burnout, anxiety, mood disorders, grief, boundary-setting, and domestic violence recovery.

My approach is collaborative, candid, and rooted in mutual respect. Whether you need a single, focused session to navigate an immediate storm or ongoing guidance through a major life transition, we will focus on what is realistic, sustainable, and genuinely effective for your life.

Jessica Coburn, on the BetterHelp listing · read 6 Nov 2026

03 · How Jessica works

The 9 approaches Jessica lists, in plain English

These are the clinical methods Jessica lists. The descriptions are Maker Therapy's, not Jessica's - a general explanation of what each method is, so the list means something before you have spoken to anybody. They are not a claim about how Jessica runs a session.

Acceptance and Commitment TherapyACT

Rather than trying to argue a painful thought away, ACT works on loosening its grip and getting on with what matters to you anyway. Sessions spend real time naming your values, then building action around them while difficult feelings are still present.

Client-Centred TherapyPerson-centred · Rogerian

The therapist does not steer toward a technique or a diagnosis. They offer sustained, non-judgemental attention and reflect back what they hear, on the premise that people find their own direction when they are genuinely listened to. Often what people mean by “someone who just gets it”.

Cognitive Behavioural TherapyCBT

Structured, present-focused work on the loop between what you think, how you feel and what you then do. Usually means noticing a thought pattern in the room, testing it against evidence, and practising something different between sessions. Among the most heavily researched talking therapies for depression and anxiety.

Mindfulness-Based TherapyMBCT

Trains attention on what is happening right now - body, breath, the thought as it arrives - so distress can be observed rather than automatically acted on. Strongest evidence is in preventing depression from recurring, and it is usually taught as a practice you keep doing outside the session.

Motivational InterviewingMI

A way of talking about change with somebody who is genuinely in two minds about it. The therapist does not argue for the change; they help you say your own reasons out loud, which is the part that predicts whether it happens. Common around substance use and health behaviour.

Narrative Therapy

Treats the story you tell about your life as something that can be examined and retold rather than as the plain facts. Separates the person from the problem - “the anxiety” rather than “your anxiety” - to make room for the parts the current story leaves out.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Works on the assumption that current patterns - in relationships, at work, in how you treat yourself - have a history, and that seeing the history loosens the pattern. Less structured than CBT, usually longer, and more interested in what comes up unbidden than in a weekly agenda.

Solution-Focused Brief TherapySFBT

Starts from where you want to end up rather than from how you got here. Sessions look for the times the problem is already smaller and work out what is different about those, so the number of sessions tends to be short and the work concrete.

Trauma-Focused TherapyTF-CBT · trauma-informed

CBT adapted for people whose difficulty is rooted in a frightening or overwhelming event. Pacing is the point: safety and stabilisation come first, the memory itself is approached gradually and only when you are ready, and the aim is that recalling it stops hijacking the present.

04 · What happens next

From this page to a first session

Jessica practises through BetterHelp, so the route in is BetterHelp's. This is that sequence, written by Maker Therapy from the platform's published process - not a description of Jessica's own practice, and not a promise about how quickly anything happens.

1. A questionnaire, not a booking form

   BetterHelp opens with a set of questions about what you are dealing with, what you want from therapy, and any preferences on the therapist. You are not booking Jessica at this point.

2. Naming Jessica specifically

   BetterHelp matches algorithmically by default, so asking for Jessica is a step you have to take. There is a field for requesting a specific therapist during sign-up, and you can switch afterwards from your account. Starting from a link on this page does not by itself assign you to Jessica.

3. If the caseload is full

   You will be offered somebody else rather than put on a waitlist. Worth knowing, because it is easy to assume a match is the person you asked for.

4. The first conversation

   A first session is typically history and orientation: what brought you, what has been tried, what you want to be different. It is also where the questions in the next section belong.

5. If the fit is wrong

   Changing therapist on BetterHelp does not need a reason. A first session that does not click is common and is not a verdict on therapy. That option existing is the main practical difference between a platform and a private practice.

05 · Before you commit

4 questions worth asking Jessica

Built from what Jessica actually lists, so they are answerable and specific rather than generic. Maker Therapy's, not Jessica's - Jessica has not seen them and is under no obligation to answer any of them.

• “You list both Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Client-Centred Therapy. Which do you lean on with someone like me?”

  Those two point in different directions - one structured and led by the therapist, the other led by you. The answer tells you what the sessions will actually feel like.

• “How do you decide when someone is ready to work on a traumatic memory itself?”

  Pacing is the biggest safety question in trauma work. A clear, unhurried answer here matters more than any credential.

• “With 15 years in, what has changed most in how you work?”

  Long experience is only an advantage if it has been examined. This tends to surface whether it has.

• “How do you handle the gap between sessions if something comes up?”

  On BetterHelp this varies a great deal by therapist. Better to know the rhythm now than to discover it on a bad week.

06 · Practical details

Credentials and licensing

Credential

LMHC

Licensed in

Iowa

Licence

IA LMHC 077247

Licence number

077247

Licence expires

30 Sep 2028

NPI

1245617356

Years in practice

15

Gender

Female

Languages

English

International clients

Accepted

Listed since

29 Sep 2026

07 · Provenance

Where every line on this page came from

Jessica's name, credential, state, subjects, approaches and biography are read from BetterHelp's therapist roster, which Maker Therapy re-reads once a day; this page reflects the reading taken on 6 Nov 2026. The licence number and NPI are cross-checked against public registers.

The plain-English method descriptions, the first-session walkthrough and the questions are written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such wherever they appear.

Maker Therapy is not BetterHelp, does not take bookings, and has not met Jessica. There are no reviews or ratings on this page because we have no way to verify one. If you start therapy through a link here, we may be paid a commission - it does not change your price and it does not affect who appears here or in what order.

Something on this page wrong or out of date? Report it and it will be checked against the source.