Practitioner record · Checked 7 Oct 2026

Renee Giegel has been in practice 27 years and is licensed in Virginia. Renee lists addictions, trauma and abuse and sleeping disorders among 95 subjects on the BetterHelp roster.

Everything below is either quoted from Renee's own BetterHelp listing, taken from public licensing records, or written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such. Nothing here is an availability promise, a review, or a rating.

27years in practice
95subjects listed
12approaches listed

01 · Who Renee works with

Renee works with addictions, trauma and abuse and sleeping disorders

Renee lists 18 specialisms and 77 further focus areas. Specialisms are the subjects Renee chose to list first, which is the closest a listing gets to “this is my actual practice”.

Specialisms
  • Addictions
  • Trauma and abuse
  • Sleeping disorders
  • Self esteem
  • Depression
  • Relationship issues
  • Family conflicts
  • Grief
  • Intimacy-related issues
  • Eating disorders
  • Parenting issues
  • Anger management
  • Career difficulties
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Coping with life changes
  • Coaching
  • Compassion fatigue
  • ADHD
Also experienced with
  • Abandonment
  • Adoption and foster care
  • Aging and geriatric issues
  • Antisocial personality
  • Attachment issues
  • Autism and Asperger Syndrome
  • Blended family issues
  • Body image
  • Cancer
  • Caregiver issues and stress
  • Chronic pain, illness, and disability
  • Co-morbidity
  • Codependency
  • Commitment issues
  • Communication problems
  • Control issues
  • Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
  • Dependent personality
  • Dissociation
  • Divorce and separation
  • Domestic violence
  • Drug and alcohol addiction
  • Eating and food-related issues
  • Emptiness
  • Family of origin issues
  • Family problems
  • Fatherhood issues
  • Fertility issues
  • First responder issues
  • Forgiveness
  • Gender dysphoria
  • Guilt and shame
  • Hearing impaired
  • HIV / AIDS
  • Hoarding
  • Hospice and end-of-life counseling
  • Immigration issues
  • Impulsivity
  • Infidelity
  • Intellectual disability
  • Isolation / loneliness
  • Jealousy
  • Life purpose
  • Men's issues
  • Midlife crisis
  • Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
  • Money and financial issues
  • Mood disorders
  • Multicultural concerns
  • Narcissism
  • Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
  • Panic disorder and panic attacks
  • Paranoia
  • Personality disorders
  • Phobias
  • Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
  • Postpartum depression
  • Post-traumatic stress
  • Pregnancy and childbirth
  • Prejudice and discrimination
  • Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
  • Self-harm
  • Self-love
  • Sex addiction
  • Sexual assault and abuse
  • Sexual dysfunction
  • Sexuality
  • Smoking / vaping cessation
  • Social anxiety and phobia
  • Somatization
  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Trichotillomania
  • Visually impaired
  • Women's issues
  • Workplace issues
  • Young adult issues

02 · In Renee's own words

What Renee says about the work

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

I am licensed in Virginia with 27 years of professional work experience. I have experience in helping clients with coping with addictions, trauma and abuse, sleeping disorders, motivation, self esteem, and confidence as well as numerous other concerns. I work with my clients to create an open and safe environment where thoughts and feelings can be shared without fear of judgment. Taking the first step to seeking a more fulfilling and happier life takes courage. I am here to support you in that process.

Renee Giegel, on the BetterHelp listing · read 7 Oct 2026

03 · How Renee works

The 10 approaches Renee lists, in plain English

These are the clinical methods Renee lists. The descriptions are Maker Therapy's, not Renee'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 Renee runs a session.

Attachment-Based Therapy
Reads present-day relationship difficulty through the lens of how safety and closeness were learned early on. The therapeutic relationship itself is treated as part of the work, because it is where the pattern tends to show up first.
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.
Internal Family SystemsIFS
Treats the mind as made up of parts - the critic, the one who withdraws, the one that keeps everything running - each of which is trying to protect you. The work is getting to know them rather than overruling them.

Also listed

  • Existential Therapy
  • Somatic Therapy

04 · What happens next

From this page to a first session

Renee 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 Renee'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 Renee at this point.

  2. Naming Renee specifically

    BetterHelp matches algorithmically by default, so asking for Renee 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 Renee.

  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 Renee

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

  • “You list both Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Attachment-Based 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 27 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
LPC
Licensed in
Virginia
Licence
VA LPC 0701005357
Licence number
0701005357
Licence expires
30 Jun 2027
NPI
1528312873
Years in practice
27
Gender
Female
Languages
English
International clients
Not accepted
Listed since
9 Jun 2026

07 · Provenance

Where every line on this page came from

Renee'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 7 Oct 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 Renee. 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.

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