Erin Zelt - Online Therapist in Pennsylvania

Anxiety can feel like your mind is always one step ahead: worrying, overthinking, replaying, or predicting what could go wrong next. It shows up as racing thoughts, tension in your chest, trouble sleeping, or the constant feeling that you “should be doing more.” For children and teens, anxiety may also look like irritability, avoidance, stomachaches, or big emotional reactions that seem to come out of nowhere. For people who have experienced trauma, anxiety can feel like being constantly on alert, as if your body hasn’t gotten the message that you’re safe.

Erin helps clients slow down racing thoughts, untangle the “what ifs,” and feel more grounded and in control. She draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), along with mindfulness, grounding, and creative expression. This helps you understand both the thoughts fueling your anxiety and how it shows up in your body. When anxiety is rooted in past experiences, EMDR can help ease the intensity of those memories so they no longer drive your reactions today. Together, you’ll build practical tools to tolerate distress, regulate your nervous system, and respond to anxiety in healthier, more compassionate ways. Whether it’s

• generalized worry,

• panic attacks,

• social anxiety,

• trauma-related anxiety, or

• general overwhelm,

therapy gives you space to understand what’s happening beneath the surface and start feeling like yourself again.

Living with a chronic illness can affect much more than your body. It can change your routines, your relationships, your sense of identity, and how you see your future. Many people find themselves dealing with fatigue, pain, unpredictable symptoms, and constant medical appointments. On top of that come the emotional weight of grief, frustration, isolation, or worry about what’s next. You might feel like no one fully understands what you carry each day, or like you’re always explaining yourself to others.

Erin helps clients make room for the full experience of living with a chronic condition, both the physical and the emotional. Using Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills, mindfulness, and grounding, she helps you build ways to cope with pain, uncertainty, and difficult emotions without being consumed by them. For clients whose diagnosis or medical experiences have felt overwhelming or even traumatic, her trauma-informed approach and EMDR training can help ease the lasting impact of those moments. Creative and expressive work can offer another outlet when feelings are hard to put into words. Together, you’ll work toward self-compassion, acceptance, and a life that feels meaningful on your own terms. Whether you’re navigating

• a new or ongoing diagnosis,

• chronic pain or fatigue,

• medical trauma,

• grief over changes in your health or abilities, or

• the stress of managing care and relationships,

therapy offers a supportive space to process what you’re going through and find steadier ground.

Depression looks different for everyone. For some, it feels like a constant heaviness or loss of motivation. For others, it’s numbness, irritability, or just feeling “off” for longer than usual. You might notice changes in sleep or appetite, pulling away from people, struggling to focus, or feeling like you’re moving through life in slow motion. Even things that once brought joy might now feel like chores. For children and teens, depression can also show up as withdrawal, irritability, or changes at school.

Depression isn’t a sign of weakness by any measure. It’s a signal that something deeper needs care and attention. Many people live with high-functioning depression, appearing fine on the outside while silently struggling to keep up with daily life. For others, depression is tied to past experiences or trauma that still weigh on them today. It can be confusing and frustrating to feel “stuck” when you’re trying so hard to feel better.

Erin offers space to slow down, understand what’s happening beneath the surface, and start rebuilding from a place of compassion. Drawing on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and trauma-informed care, she helps clients identify what’s fueling the sadness or emptiness and find small, realistic steps toward feeling more grounded and connected. You’ll learn ways to challenge harsh self-talk, manage difficult emotions, and create routines that gently lift your mood over time. When words feel hard to find, creative and expressive approaches can offer another way to process what you’re carrying.

You don’t have to go through depression alone. With the right support, healing happens; not overnight, but steadily. You can begin to feel lighter, more hopeful, and ready to reconnect with the parts of life that matter most to you.

Trauma isn’t only about what happened. It’s about how an experience continues to live in your body and mind long after it’s over, whether it happened recently or many years ago. You might notice memories that won’t quiet down, anxiety that seems to come out of nowhere, or feeling numb and disconnected from yourself or others. Trauma can stem from a single event, from ongoing experiences like childhood neglect or abuse (often called Complex PTSD), from loss and grief, or from relationships that were supposed to feel safe. Each leaves its own lasting emotional and physical imprints, and trauma can happen at any age.

No two people experience trauma the same way. Some feel on edge and hypervigilant, while others shut down or feel nothing at all. You may find yourself avoiding certain places, people, or sensations, or wondering why you “can’t just move on.” Many survivors also carry the added weight of fear, shame, or self-blame. For children and teens, trauma can show up as changes in behavior, sleep, school performance, or emotional regulation. These reactions aren’t weakness. They’re your brain and body’s way of trying to keep you safe.

Erin offers a safe, nonjudgmental space to work through what happened at a pace that feels manageable. As an EMDR Certified Practitioner and Certified Trauma Practitioner, she helps clients process painful memories so they lose their intensity and stop driving reactions in the present. She pairs EMDR with Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills to build grounding, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance, so you feel steady enough to do the deeper work. For clients who find it hard to put their experiences into words, trauma-informed art therapy offers another path forward. You won’t be asked to retell every detail. The focus is on helping you feel safer in your body, release shame, and rebuild trust in yourself and in others.

Healing is possible. With patience, care, and steady support, Erin helps clients reconnect with the parts of themselves that went quiet to survive, so they can feel more grounded and whole, not defined by what happened.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an approach to mental health that focuses on the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and how a shift in one can create real change in the others. If you’ve ever gotten stuck spiraling through “what ifs,” felt trapped in negative thinking, or reacted in ways that surprised even you, CBT offers a structured, practical way to interrupt that cycle and understand what’s actually driving it.

Many people come to CBT after spending a long time feeling stuck: caught in the same anxious thought loops, avoiding things that matter to them, or reacting from old patterns without fully knowing why. CBT creates space to slow that process down, notice the thoughts and beliefs fueling it, and build skills that actually change how you respond, not just how you feel about it after the fact.

This approach is especially effective for anxiety, depression, stress, and the lingering effects of trauma. Therapy may focus on identifying and challenging unhelpful or distorted thinking, recognizing the patterns that keep anxiety or depression going, building coping skills you can rely on, and practicing new responses in real time. For trauma survivors, CBT can also help shift the beliefs that formed in survival mode, like “I’m not safe” or “it was my fault,” into ones that reflect who you are today. CBT is structured and goal-oriented, which means the tools you learn in session are built to keep working long after therapy ends.

Erin works with clients to identify the specific thought patterns and behaviors getting in their way, and to build strategies tailored to their goals. She often blends CBT with Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills, mindfulness, and creative approaches, so clients have both practical tools for changing their thinking and ways to manage emotions when they feel overwhelming. At Better Minds Counseling & Services, CBT is integrated with evidence-based, individualized care to help you feel more in control of your mind, your emotions, and your day-to-day life.

CBT isn’t about ignoring how you feel or thinking your way out of everything. It’s about understanding the cycle you’re in, and learning how to change it.

Life can feel like a rollercoaster sometimes. Emotions hit hard, relationships feel complicated, and you may find yourself reacting in ways you regret or don’t fully understand. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a skills-based approach that helps you find balance between accepting yourself as you are and making the changes you want to see. DBT is about giving you tools to put into action in your life now.

DBT focuses on four main areas: mindfulness (staying present), emotion regulation (managing intense feelings), distress tolerance (handling tough situations without falling apart), and interpersonal effectiveness (building and maintaining healthy relationships). These skills aren’t just “therapy talk.” They’re practical tools you can use every day to respond more calmly and intentionally when life gets overwhelming.

If you struggle with anxiety, mood swings, impulsivity, the effects of trauma, or feeling “too much,” DBT can help you understand your emotions instead of fighting them. It teaches you how to pause, reflect, and respond instead of react, turning moments of chaos into opportunities for control and clarity.

Erin has years of experience teaching DBT skills to children, adolescents, and adults in individual and group settings. She has also presented on DBT at professional conferences. She often weaves in creative and expressive approaches, which can make skills easier to remember and more personal to use, especially for kids and teens. In therapy, you’ll learn and practice these skills in ways that fit your real life, not just in theory. Over time, you’ll start to notice more balance, more peace, and more confidence in how you handle both yourself and your relationships.

DBT helps you feel more centered and in control, so you can navigate life’s ups and downs with compassion, resilience, and a stronger sense of self.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based therapy that helps your brain process painful or overwhelming experiences that feel “stuck.” When something distressing happens, the memory can stay stored with the same intensity it had at the time. That’s why a sound, a place, or a passing thought can bring back fear, shame, or panic as if it were happening all over again. EMDR helps those memories lose their emotional charge, so they feel like something that happened in the past rather than something you’re still living through.

During EMDR, you briefly focus on a memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation, such as following eye movements, tapping, or listening to alternating tones. This process supports your brain’s natural ability to heal, similar to how it processes experiences during sleep. Unlike some approaches, EMDR doesn’t require you to talk through every detail of what happened or complete homework between sessions. Many clients find relief from symptoms they’ve carried for years.

EMDR is widely recognized as one of the most effective treatments for trauma and PTSD. It can also help with anxiety, panic, grief, distressing memories, and negative beliefs like “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not safe.” It can be helpful whether you’ve experienced a single traumatic event, ongoing childhood trauma, or experiences that may not seem “big enough” to count but still affect how you feel today.

As an EMDR Certified Practitioner and Certified Trauma Practitioner, Erin guides clients through the process with care, structure, and attention to pacing. Before any memory work begins, she helps you build grounding and emotional regulation skills, often drawing on her DBT training, so you feel steady and supported throughout. Erin is also a Certified Telehealth Practitioner and provides EMDR virtually, so you can do this work from a space where you already feel comfortable.

EMDR isn’t about erasing what happened. It’s about helping your mind and body finally recognize that you’re safe now, so you can move forward with more freedom, calm, and confidence.

Trauma can be hard to talk about. Sometimes the words aren’t there, the memories feel scattered, or saying things out loud feels like too much. Trauma-informed art therapy offers another way to explore and express what you’re carrying, through drawing, painting, collage, and other creative processes guided by a credentialed art therapist.

Trauma is often stored in ways that go beyond language, held in images, sensations, and emotions rather than clear stories. Art-making can help reach those experiences gently, creating some distance between you and what happened so it feels safer to look at. The process itself can be calming and grounding, helping your nervous system settle while you work through difficult feelings at your own pace. You don’t need any artistic experience or skill. This isn’t about making something “good.” It’s about what the process brings up and what it helps you understand.

Art therapy can be especially helpful for children and teens who may not yet have the words for what they feel. It also helps adults who feel stuck in talk therapy, get overwhelmed when discussing their trauma, or want a more creative and hands-on approach. It can support healing from complex trauma, grief, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, while building emotional regulation, self-awareness, and confidence.

Erin is a Board-Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC) and a credentialed art therapy supervisor (ATCS), with a master’s degree in Art Therapy from NYU. She has more than a decade of experience using art therapy with children, adolescents, and adults across outpatient, hospital, and group settings. She often integrates art therapy with EMDR and DBT skills, so clients can process their experiences while building practical tools for coping. Her approach is always guided by safety, choice, and collaboration: you decide what to create and what to share.

Through creative expression, art therapy helps you reconnect with parts of yourself that may have felt silenced, and discover strength, insight, and healing in a way that feels uniquely your own.