Rita Ham , LMHP

Rita Ham brings more than four decades of clinical experience working with people facing mental health, substance use, and co-occurring challenges. Her professional path began in a community-based substance use treatment center where she completed training and facilitated family interventions, an experience that shaped a long career focused on helping others. She is a Licensed Mental Health Practitioner (LMHP), a credential that indicates specialized training to provide mental health care in Nebraska, and she has also held licensure to provide substance use counseling in the past.

Throughout her career she has worked in residential treatment settings and, since 1995, in outpatient community programs. She has supported individuals, couples, families, and groups, and currently concentrates on adult clients, integrating cognitive behavioral techniques, trauma-informed principles, and a range of evidence-informed practices. When appropriate and with client approval, she involves supportive people from a client’s network to aid progress, while emphasizing that a diagnosis does not define the person.

Rita’s approach is warm and interactive, grounded in respect, compassion, sensitivity, and honesty. She prioritizes building a strong therapeutic relationship that permits candid discussion and gentle but direct challenges toward agreed-upon goals, and she focuses on practical skill building and tools that address the concerns that bring people to therapy.

Evidence-Informed Approaches and Online Care

Rita Ham often draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help clients identify and change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns - an approach useful for anxiety, depression, and many everyday challenges. She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which focuses on accepting difficult feelings while clarifying personal values and taking committed action toward meaningful goals; ACT can be helpful for stress, mood challenges, and coping with life changes. In addition, Attachment-Based Therapy informs her work with relationship and family concerns by exploring how early relational patterns influence current connections and emotional responses.

Finding the right approach is collaborative - Rita works with each person to understand their needs, goals, and preferences and then tailors interventions or combines methods that best support progress. Clients are invited to be active partners in determining what feels most helpful.

Online therapy options such as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and to maintain continuity of care across distance. These formats offer flexibility in scheduling and communication style, and they allow licensed professionals to provide ongoing support in ways that match each client’s routine and comfort level.