Dezetta Burnett
You're the one everyone calls first: composed on the outside, carrying far more than most people realize. I'm Dr. Dezetta Burnett, DSW, LCSW. My virtual California practice helps women and professionals work through anxiety, overthinking, burnout, relationship patterns, boundaries, and the uncertainty and grief that can accompany fertility treatment and major life transitions. My approach is direct, thoughtful, and practical. We look beneath the immediate problem, understand what is driving it, and identify what needs to change. Appointments are offered by telehealth on weekdays through 3:00 PM. I do not offer evening appointments.
I am especially skilled at helping high-functioning adults identify the underlying dynamics that often go unexamined precisely because life on the outside appears successful.
If you are preparing for IVF or IUI, currently undergoing treatment, or have recently completed treatment and do not see an appointment within the timeframe you need, please schedule my next available appointment and send me a message. I will make every effort to accommodate you sooner if an opening becomes available.
First session
Your first session is a conversation, not a checklist. We’ll talk about what brought you in and what you want to change or understand better about yourself and your relationships. I’ll ask, listen, and start naming the patterns and dynamics underneath the distress. You’ll get a real feel for how I think, and whether we’re a fit. You should leave steadier than you arrived, with somewhere to go next.
Strengths
My greatest strength is helping clients see themselves clearly without judgment. My style is direct and compassionate, and it moves past surface conversation into real work quickly. I work especially well with high-functioning adults, where the hardest dynamics go unexamined precisely because life looks successful from the outside. I won’t let avoidance quietly shape your progress, but the work stays grounded in respect and safety. You’ll feel both stretched and steadied in the same session, and you’ll leave with something to act on.
Ideal clients
I'm best positioned to work with high-functioning women and professionals who are successful in many areas of their lives but feel anxious, unsettled, or unfulfilled on the inside. You may find yourself overthinking conversations, anticipating what could go wrong, struggling to set boundaries, giving more than you receive, or feeling responsible for holding everything and everyone together. My clients are thoughtful, insightful, and motivated for growth. They want to understand what is driving their anxiety, how their history shapes their relationships and decisions, and how to respond differently. Many are navigating relationship stress, career or identity shifts, family pressure, hormonal changes, or the uncertainty and grief of fertility and IVF. These transitions often bring familiar patterns to the surface. If you are tired of overthinking everything and are ready to feel more grounded, confident, and secure in yourself and your relationships, I would love to work with you.
Treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
CBT has been a cornerstone of my clinical work across more than a decade in behavioral health, and my doctoral training deepened both my command of the model and my ability to adapt it to complex, high-functioning clients. Overthinking is exhausting, especially when you can't logic your way out of it. I use CBT to help you identify the thought patterns and core beliefs driving your anxiety, relationship struggles, and self-doubt. Together we'll challenge distorted thinking, reframe the narratives that keep you stuck, and build new responses that align with who you want to become. You'll leave sessions with tools you can use the same day.
Motivational Interviewing
I've used Motivational Interviewing throughout my career in behavioral health, where meeting people at their actual readiness for change, not where anyone thinks they should be, is everything. If you're already your own harshest critic, the last thing you need is a therapist pushing you. MI creates space to honestly explore what you want versus what you feel you should want. Instead of compliance or performative progress, we build genuine internal motivation, so the changes you make actually last. This matters most in our early sessions, as we establish trust and get clear on what you truly want your life and relationships to look like.
Humanistic
Humanistic therapy has been the foundation beneath my clinical work since my earliest training, and more than a decade of practice has only deepened my conviction in its core belief: you are the expert on your own life. You don't need to be fixed; you need to be seen clearly, without judgment. If you've spent years performing capability for everyone around you, our sessions are the one place you don't have to. I bring warmth, honesty, and genuine respect for your capacity to grow, and from that grounded, accepting foundation we do the deeper work of becoming who you actually want to be.
Solution Focused Brief Treatment
Across my years of clinical practice, Solution-Focused Brief Treatment is the method I've seen serve driven, goal-oriented clients best, and it fits naturally with my direct, practical style. You don't have years to spend circling the same problems, and you won't have to. We'll move quickly from what isn't working to what's possible, identifying your strengths, the successes you've already built, and concrete steps you can act on between sessions. If you're motivated but need a clear framework to turn insight into action, this is where our work will feel most tangible.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
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Serves
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Licensed in
- CaliforniaLicense 64299