Therapists in South Loop, Chicago, IL

Feeling disconnected? At this uncertain time, many are experiencing relational challenges within their family, marriage/romantic life, workplace, or social life. I will help you to address ongoing anxiety, depression, or avoidance of difficult feelings such as self-doubt. My approach is focused on a partnership, and supporting you to seek-out positive and meaningful experiences to rebuild connection and self-esteem. During our initial sessions, I will complete an assessment to form a better understanding of your background and we will form individualized goals such as improved relationship satisfaction or reduced anxiety.

All things in life need a little TLC sometimes - seeking help while taking one day at a time is the bravest thing you can do to help sort through the stress, chaos, and challenges that are weighing on you. Perhaps you are facing some big life changes, motivated to improve your work-life balance, burdened by worry, flooded by negative thoughts, or hoping to work on your communication style to better your relationships. This process can seem so overwhelming at first, and I would love to help you through it so you can accomplish your goals.

Thanks for checking out my page and kudos to you for taking care of yourself! What matters most to me is that my clients know they are welcomed and accepted for who they are. As a therapist, I support clients as they make their way through challenging times, whether that be a breakup, a rejection, loneliness, family struggles, depression, or life transitions that feel overwhelming. In my work, I strive to help clients find belonging and connection while also becoming more accepting of unpleasant or challenging experiences outside of their control.

My ideal client (s) are individuals, couples and families. I enjoy working with adults and families who want to improve their process for self care and learn healthy coping skills. I also enjoy working with couples who want to learn how to communicate effectively, identify and resolve issues, and develop a sense of purpose to keep going.

We all yearn for fulfilling relationships with our partners, family, and other important people in our social circles. Sometimes we need help navigating the complexities of our connections. I believe the therapeutic experience can help clients better understand themselves and their relational needs. I am a Couple and Family Therapist intern and a second-year Ph.D. student in the Couple and Family Therapy program at Adler University in Chicago.

You may be spending a lot of time feeling bad or worrying about where you are at in your life. Telling yourself stories of why you’re not enough or comparing yourself to everyone else around you? You may have convinced yourself you cannot have what you want or don't feel good enough to get to where you want to be in your life. You may not even know where you learned to talk to yourself this way. When did this start? Have you become your last priority? Continuing to worry may be stopping you from doing the things you want the most or keeping you from having the close meaningful friendships or relationships you truly want.

Phoenix Rising Counseling and Guidance, LLC is a holistic practice built on the premise of helping individuals like you to recognize your strengths and potential and rise up from the ashes that have negatively impacted your life. We strive to combine the treatment of mental health with mindfulness and spirituality. We believe that everyone has the tools and the innate ability to change their external world by working through the blockages, thought perceptions and cloud of their internal world.

I work best with individuals and couples who yearn to increase emotional awareness and curiosity about their relationship patterns and coping with painful experiences. Emotions that underlie “default” relational responses are complex and often felt in the body. Engaging with and expressing a full range of emotions, I support clients in increasing congruence between how they feel and how the connect with others - something critical to finding contentment in secure relationships. Thus, I aim to help clients expand how they understand themselves and others through experiential emotional awareness and increased agency.

During these trying times, I understand how anxiety, depression, relationship woes, physical and mental health challenges, and family strife can increase as if it's under a microscope! Individuals want and need internal working systems that help them do more than cope and survive, they need the strength and awareness to grow from trials and tribulations both within and outside of one's control.

Having practiced psychotherapy and counseling for the past 20 years, I work to form an empathic relationship with clients and form a collaborative understanding of the difficulties that brought them to therapy, and how to best solve them. The goal is to find more satisfying relationships and fulfilling ways of being in the world. I work primarily from an Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) framework, although I have been trained in a variety of different psychotherapeutic methods. EFT is an empirically-supported approach that is flexible in that it allows the integration of other methods and techniques when necessary.

Our relationship with ourselves is constantly evolving; a reality that is simultaneously wonderful & deeply challenging. This has an impact on our ability to engage in our lives, communities, & relationships. The journey of self-discovery can feel daunting- my approach to therapy offers a starting point. Through a balance of insight & mindfulness, I invite clients to shift their point of view. I value clients' unique perspective and I believe there’s no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” approach to therapy. Together, with all our nuances & imperfections, we can co-create a therapeutic relationship that feels safe & impactful.

Do you struggle with your inner critic? Have you felt lonely or rejected? Maybe you've tried to avoid anxiety, depression, or traumatic memories, seeking a way out of a rollercoaster of emotions. Have you experienced difficulty with life transitions; career/school stress; relationship issues including polyamory and CNM; bigotry; grief; addiction; sex/drug linked behavior; sexual assault/abuse; self-harm, or suicidal thoughts? Are you somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum and feel like no one in your life understands you? If you answered yes to any of these issues, when was the last time you had a space to talk that was just for you?

My approach is engaging, interactive, and curiously attuned to my client’s needs. I believe in forming a trusting therapeutic relationship for facilitating transformative personal growth. I work with individuals and couples, providing a safe space to uncover core issues, limiting beliefs, and unhealthy patterns that keep you feeling out of alignment or stuck. I utilize a range of modalities primarily based on attachment theory. Our attachment styles are formed during early childhood development and fall on a spectrum from insecure to secure attachment.

I work with individuals, families, and couples. Common topics I can support you with include: navigating relationships, communication, high conflict with your partner, fighting over the same issues, family conflict and trauma, attachment and different attachment styles in your relationship, infidelity, dating, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, stress management, role of spirituality and religion in your relationship, and increasing self-awareness. I also work from a culturally sensitive stance and can help you if you're faced with racism, classism, sexism, colorism, and more.

Life can give us experiences of fun and excitement. At the same time, there are periods where day-to-day life becomes overwhelming. When these waves of overwhelm arrive, we can experience difficulty identifying ways to deal with our feelings. We may struggle in naming what we are feeling and subsequently experience a sense of impossibility and helplessness. Through my work with individuals and couples, I developed a repertoire of interventions to guide my clients who are struggling with relational issues, depression, anxiety, trauma, and emotional dysregulation.

Clients come to me and receive compassionate care without negative judgment as a means to make meaning of the events of their lives. That new understanding, gained in a supportive coaching relationship with the therapist, becomes the foundation for positive change. Open and self-aware clients tend to want validation of their thoughts and challenges to what hasn't worked. Skeptical clients tend to desire safety and assurance that someone is on their side. Regardless of the category, clients tend to get what they need from one session to the next.

Cheers to seeking out assistance with the wrenches that life throws! I am committed to your growth and progress, and together we will collaborate to get you to the place you strive to be! My goal is not to hold your hand indefinitely! My goal is to equip and empower you with tools on how to navigate your circumstance, so that you are not dependent on the therapeutic space. If you are truly motivated to “do the work”, I am the therapist for you!

I am a licensed marriage and family therapist committed to working with individuals and couples looking to address relationship and intimacy issues, sexual difficulties or dysfunctions, infidelity, anxiety, and self-esteem. I strongly believe that relationships– whether with ourselves or others– greatly impact our life satisfaction. Getting the opportunity to help clients navigate and strengthen the connection and balance within their relationships to self and others is such a meaningful and fulfilling experience.

(She/Her/Hers) Over the years, I have built a practice devoted to improving the lives of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, struggling with a number of different issues. More recently, I have shifted my focus from clinical practice to the training of pre-licensed and early career therapists. I very much enjoy mentoring as it gives me the opportunity to share all that I have learned in my two decades of providing psychotherapy.