Emotionally Focused Therapists in Chicago, IL

After training and working at universities across the country like Stanford, Emory, and Northwestern, I believe effective therapy requires a few essential components: a strong therapist-client relationship, a supportive yet challenging environment, and a combination of skill-based and insight-oriented work. I work from an anti-oppressive, feminist framework to create a safe environment for understanding a person within their context and cultivating opportunities for exploration, insight, and healing to occur.

The decision to seek therapy can be difficult, as it's hard to reach out for help. My goal is to make therapy feel less overwhelming through a collaborative partnership where together we identify your challenges and develop healthy coping skills. My style, rooted in warmth and humor, utilizes the therapeutic relationship to explore positive change and growth. Customized feedback and a range of strategies are provided drawing from evidenced based research and years of clinical expertise. I specialize in individual and couples therapy uniquely focusing on enhancing relationships, healing from the past, and thriving individually.

In our modern world, many of us recognize the need to take time to slow down and get in tune with ourselves and our relationships. I actively engage with clients in a reflective process to explore current life stressors, challenges, & behavioral patterns. A relational framework is utilized to help guide clients through an exploration of how current and past relationships influence their lives. Within the context of a safe and trusting therapeutic environment, I help clients to identify the steps needed to overcome challenges and promote positive change.

I wonder if your life’s journey feels filled with twists and turns that manifest in countless ways. Perhaps you find yourself asking questions like, “Well, what now? Where to? How did I/we get here? How do I/we get there instead?”. Maybe your paths can seem never-ending, you experience unanticipated steep cliffs, and/or you revisit familiar, unfulfilling destinations. It's in these moments of struggle and feeling stuck that I ask clients to welcome me to support them. Where you have questions about the paths you experience and have not taken. When you are either upset or self-reflective. Let me help you figure out the next steps.

I specialize in identity development & life transition work, harm reduction for individuals with substance use issues, relationship issues, mood & anxiety challenges, and supporting individuals who have endured trauma. I am a kink and poly aware therapist who enjoys working with relationships. I relying on an Emotionally Focused Therapy ( EFT ) lens when working with relationship struggles. I am dedicated to serving Chicagoland’s LGBTQIA+ community and have a deep background in advocacy and direct service. I am especially dedicated to supporting TGNC individuals in the unique aspects of their journeys.

I invite clients to bring their whole, authentic selves into counseling and take non-judgmental, integrated practice to help clients foster self-awareness, deeper understanding and gain insight into their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and interpersonal difficulties. My therapeutic approach is warm and engaging to provide you with a safe space to come to therapy as you are. I see individuals and couples, and am trained in various empirically supported and holistic treatment modalities.

I support individuals and couples with relationship conflict, sexual concerns, and adjustment to life transitions. Clients come to therapy with some common relationship issues: feeling disconnected, having the same argument on repeat, discomfort or awkwardness talking about sex and intimacy, a sexless marriage, mismatched desire, painful intercourse, questions about sexual functioning, and more. With advanced clinical training in relationship and sex therapy, I’ll help you to better understand your needs and goals, build empathy and emotional intimacy, and cultivate more connection and trust in your relationships.

Finding the right therapist can be difficult, so let's jump right in: I am trained to treat a variety of anxiety and depressive disorders in adults and have specialized interest and training working with individuals who have complex trauma stemming from childhood. Depression, anxiety, panic, anger, shame, or difficulty trusting others are all normal responses to adverse childhood situations, and I believe nobody should have to process and understand these experiences alone. I value the opportunity to accompany clients through their memories and experiences to help them envision a safer, and more hopeful, future for themselves.

If you're here, you're probably looking for a change--whether it's in your relationships, patterns, thoughts, feelings, or something else that's important to you. Life is full of challenges, but I firmly believe that people have fundamental inner-strengths that can help them cope. As a therapist, I warmly accept my clients as they are, and work alongside them to explore who they would like to become. I believe in the power of human connection, and strive to use that connection to help my clients access their strengths; to ultimately bring about meaningful change, healing, growth, and understanding.

It is incredibly important for an individual's emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical components to work well together. I intend to approach every client from a holistic, person-centered, and emotionally focused framework to reach their goals. I enjoy walking alongside individuals and couples as they navigate trauma, relationship challenges, transitions, anxiety, and depression.

When your relationship is suffering, you're suffering. Oftentimes, terribly so. Maybe the partner you used to feel so close to now seems more like a distant stranger. Maybe a betrayal has left you outraged and alone. Maybe all the fighting and miscommunication makes you wonder at times what you ever saw in this person at all.

Here at According to Sykes, assistance and guidance is offered through Individual, Family and Group therapy as well as Professional Development and Training Opportunities. We recognize and understand the complicated and complex ways that trauma influences all parts of someone’s life, body, and brain, and make treatment decisions based on that framework. We realize that most people have lived through some type of trauma because trauma is so common and understand treatment through that lens.

I strive to provide excellent care catered toward an individual's specific needs by leading with a compassionate, flexible, and goal-oriented approach. I have received specialized clinical training in the areas of: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), acceptance & commitment therapy (ACT), emotionally-focused therapy ( EFT ), psychodynamic approaches, and trauma-informed frameworks. Through my work at Northwestern's Family Institute, Eating Recovery Center, and multiple private practice settings, my consistent aim has been to advocate for the well-being of my clients.

Welcome! I am an advanced therapy extern at CCBH and a fourth-year clinical psychology doctoral student. I believe seeking therapy is the ultimate gift to oneself, in that it is a space just for you. It opens possibilities for self-exploration, problem-solving, and meaning-making. I am honored to help adolescents, adults, and couples from all walks of life. My strengths lie in helping folx with histories of complex trauma, sexual trauma, illness (pain, cancer, reproductive, or sexual health issues), grief, and relationship issues.

As your therapist, I explore what suits your goals, your identity, and your personality. My clinical approach is inclusive of your visible and invisible identities. My specialties and experiences include depression, anxiety, trauma, attachment, substance use, self-esteem, life transitions, relapse prevention, and relationship issues. I primarily utilize Emotion Focused Therapy ( EFT ), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), the Gottman Method, and Motivational Interviewing.