Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapists in Chicago, IL

My name is Nidisha Kaul, LPC. As a Licensed Professional Counselor I have had the opportunity to assist clients in areas such as personal growth/life transitions, sport performance, unresolved childhood wounds, understanding past and current patterns of dysfunction, substance misuse, and their relationship with self and others. Therapy is a self-care practice one embraces to grow, heal, learn, and create a path to self-actualization. By building trust and partnership, I can assist my clients in creating a plan of action that addresses the problem at its core.

My expertise lies in helping people of all ages, from children to seniors, who are struggling with issues such as life transitions, anxiety and depression, relationship problems, family conflict, problematic behavior patterns, coping with divorce, death, and other types of loss, parenting challenges, and childhood trauma. My goal is to help my clients better understand their own feelings and behaviors so as to reduce emotional suffering and make positive changes in life.

In my work, I focus on equipping children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families with the insight, knowledge, tools, and skills to live healthy and balanced lives. Often, my clients already have the personal strengths and relationship skills that they will need to live a healthier life, and my work involves simply helping them uncover and utilize these strengths. I aim to empower clients to advocate for themselves within the contexts in which they live. I strive to provide therapy that is culturally and contextually informed and that integrates psychological research and theory to provide the best and most appropriate care.

You may be familiar with the phrase "feel your feelings, don't think your feelings", but may be unsure of what that actually means. Perhaps you feel berated by your inner critic or stuck in conflict with parts of yourself or past experiences. Or maybe you and your partner/s are looking for support as you navigate attachment wounds. Together, we can work to disrupt patterns of distress as we find new ways to connect and create change. I practice from a harm reductionist/anti-oppressive lens that seeks to help you connect to build on your innate capacity to heal.

Hello! I am a graduate from the University of Illinois School of Social Work Champaign-Urbana. I also received training at the Center for Family Studies/The Family Institute of Chicago and am a Fellow in the American Group Psychotherapy Association. As a senior clinician, I have logged numerous hours of training and practice in the provision of trauma informed care, serious mental illness and treatment for addictions, anxiety, and depression.

I believe that we all have an innate wisdom and capacity to know the solutions to our problems but we may not be aware of our potential. My goal is to empower you to build upon your inner resources and that's how I chose the name of my practice; Self Empowerment Center. I seek to understand your personal, cultural and spiritual beliefs. Through this holistic approach, I tailor treatments based upon your unique needs. Therapy process is like an organized sport which has players and a coach. Players make the moves, working hard (you) and the coach (me) is guiding and directing.

Jon (he/they) is a Clinical Therapist at Third Eye Counseling, with a Masters in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago. As a nonbinary person of South Asian descent, Jon is passionate about providing mental health services to traditionally underserved populations, especially queer folks and people of color. Jon specializes in working with clients ages 18-30 who may be dealing with depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, trauma recovery, or life transitions.

My clinical work focuses on helping clients with communication issues, boundary development & enforcement, creating space for emotional and/or physical intimacy, conflict management, power dynamics, relationship agreements, and life events (cohabitation, marriage, coming out, losses, etc.) I work with adults as individuals, couples/relationship configurations, and family systems.

My therapeutic approach is client-centered, strengths-based, creative and collaborative, one in which I often incorporate meditation and somatic work, informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS) theory. I seek to create a therapeutic environment where you will feel heard, validated and understood. We live in a society where we often feel we should weather stress alone but sometimes having someone truly hear you and see you makes all the difference.

The foundation of successful change is a willingness to see things clearly - to be honest with ourselves about our thoughts, feelings, intentions, and actions. In order to do this, we need both courage and compassion that come from the heart. Therapy is about opening our eyes to our emotional needs and the patterns we've developed to get those needs met. We examine what is and isn't working, with compassion and understanding that all feelings and behaviors serve a purpose.

Are you ready for breakthrough or simply desiring to heal on a deeper level? Well— as a compassionate, trauma-informed therapist, I am honored to walk alongside clients on their road to freedom through mental health healing. I endeavor to provide a safe space to bear witness to your innermost thoughts, feelings, & emotions while honoring them compassionately & without judgement. This therapeutic journey will lead you to heal your childhood & relationship wounds, break free from old behavioral patterns or negative thought loops, explore your identity, navigate life transitions, change the narrative of your story, & restore your hope.

When we are able to truly understand ourselves and our relationships, we can build a life of genuine meaning and connection. Many people enter into therapy only to find themselves gaining small amounts of insight that produce little or no changes in their life. My therapeutic methods produce results that not only change the way we feel about ourselves in the world but change our behaviors. I am respectful of the fact that everyone's pace and tolerance to different interventions varies. My work is reflective of the care and respect I have for each and every client as individuals.

Life, though beautiful, is also marked by all sorts of suffering, and my job is to help you heal and grow from that. I am an attachment and trauma-informed Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), who works with individuals, families, and couples, to address communication; couple and family conflict; relational and attachment trauma; infidelity; family of origin issues; self-development and identity; PTSD; depression; anxiety; and a host of other problems that arise in life.

You are capable of taking charge of your own healing process, and my role is to help you find the channels and tools for healing that work best for you. Confronting emotional wounds can be a powerful, overwhelming, and often painful experience, and I strive to provide you with an empathic and judgment-free space where you can process these emotions freely. Utilizing a trauma-informed and strengths-based approach, I harness the power of the therapeutic relationship to help you work toward recovery, empowerment, and overall well-being.

In my experience, therapy is a collaborative process, and healing means growing into a more affirming, resilient, and accountable experience of life. In the process of living, you may have created and held onto ineffective relationship patterns or symptoms of anxiety, depression, or trauma in order to protect yourself and survive. Together, we’ll identify and understand the contexts in which these patterns developed in body, mind, and spirit in order to create the acceptance and self-compassion that can support deep healing and more fulfilling relationships with self and others.

I work with folks who are seeking a stronger sense of self-trust, ease, and ability to be connected and present in their life, hobbies, and relationships. Whether you are seeking to understand yourself, develop tools for managing stress, or align decisions with your values, you don't have to do it alone. Maybe you understand some of your patterns and past hurts, but still feel frustrated with what to do about them. Maybe life is changing and you need stability and a listening ear. I believe that self-compassion and acceptance paired with supportive relationships creates a more fulfilling life (with a little humor along the way)!

As a trauma and couples therapist, I work with survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence and those impacted by traumatic generational cycles or systemic oppression. Depression, anxiety, issues with focus and attention, rumination, chronic pain, identity crisis, and relationship issues act as alarms that tell us things need to change. Seeking therapy can be an empowering first step in reclaiming trust in yourself, your body, and your relationships. In couples therapy, we will work on communication, rebuilding intimacy and sexuality, and creating security and stability while ditching social scripts that don't serve you anymore.

My practice focuses on adults who appear to have it all together. Friends, family members, or peers may fail to hear you when you express your needs or true feelings or question whether you even have problems. Despite what others may see, you want to be heard, to express your hurts and dreams and you want to do so in a safe space. Whether you are dealing with a situational issue like an academic or professional obstacle or something that feels more encompassing like relationship patterns or identity issues, I will work with you to illuminate the answers already inside of you. I use EMDR and IFS to address client needs.

"The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong in the broken places" (Earnest Hemingway). That's why there is nothing I enjoy more than helping people reconnect with their internal power to grow from, cope with, and transform wounds that tend to separate us from our own highest good. Although this life and physical body are temporary, at our core we have a connection to an unlimited Source of power, wisdom,health, and healing.