James Gilligan, LCSW

James Gilligan is an LCSW licensed in Florida with about 20 years of clinical experience. He focuses on stress, anxiety, grief, addictions, relationship and family concerns, parenting strain, trauma and mood disorders. He also lists work with issues such as eating and sleeping problems, anger, and career changes.

He trained at Florida International University and has worked in Miami-Dade schools, providing individual, group, and family therapy early in his career. He later worked with people experiencing severe mental illness including bipolar disorder and major depression, and he began working with active duty military in 2007.

In his military work he supported people with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and domestic violence concerns, and he provided marital counseling using the Gottman approach. He has experience with addiction and eating disorder cases as well as with people from dysfunctional family backgrounds who carry trauma into adulthood.

James uses several therapy methods depending on the situation. He draws on attachment-based ideas to look at relationship patterns. He uses cognitive behavioral therapy to identify thinking and behavior links. He also uses dialectical behavior therapy skills and EMDR when appropriate for trauma-related work.

Clients can expect a practical, problem-focused style that aims to identify patterns and skills to change them. He also describes using coaching-related tools to support life changes. For people worried about parenting, family conflict, or persistent anxiety, his background shows long experience in those areas.

How therapeutic approaches are used in online sessions