Spirituality Therapists in Evanston, IL

Often we find ourselves in our life's journey seemingly finding that the right road has been lost. Have your dreams for yourself changed? Do you lack clarity for what your life could look like? Have you experienced past trauma that seems to return to your mind when you least expect it? Has your own view of spirituality changed or shifted over the years? Have you experienced trauma from religion due to who you are? Are you seemingly in a hamster wheel of actions looking for a change? If any of this resonates with you, I can help you re-create your own path through life.

I specialize in couples counseling, family counseling, counseling with men, and premarital counseling. I help clients make meaning of their struggles, articulate their desires, and collaborate to reach their goals. I normalize and interpret conflict in terms of differences, identity, connection, and power issues. Intimacy and anger, stress and time constraints, are often the focus of our work together. I tend to be fairly transparent and strengths-focused. I also specialize in the integration of spirituality and psychotherapy.

Welcome to the SamaraCare Counseling, a nonprofit community organization with offices in Lake Forest, Winnetka, Wilmette, Evanston, Oak Park, Lincoln Park and Old Town in Chicago. Our therapists see adults, couples, adolescents and children over the age of six with a wide range of concerns. These include struggles with anxiety, depression, doubt, school and work performance, lack of fulfillment, grief, divorce, mid-life, career change, and other life transitions.

My ideal client focus are black and brown children/adolescents, gender diverse clients, and women with multicultural identities. Immigrating and adapting as a young girl has influenced my professional journey and given me a refreshing perspective on life, grief, and spirituality that I want to share with my clients. In recent years, I've had the honor of working with children/teens managing a range of disability such as ADHD, ASD, and Down Syndrome as a Registered Behavioral Therapist. I continue to learn from my clients every session about love, life, and communication.

You may feel stuck, lost, lonely, or unsure how to move forward. Therapy can assist you to break through persistent patterns and give you clarity. For almost two decades, I have been helping others through a variety of life challenges including trauma, grief/loss, depression, anxiety, life transitions, family and relationship concerns. As an immigrant, I understand struggles of adjustment and acculturation process. I value working with people who want to grow through their relationships, career, undergrad/grad school or personal self-discovery. This includes exploration of how social identities and systemic forces impacts us.

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker committed to providing competent, compassionate therapeutic services to those managing the challenges of life. I specialize in working with those living with depression, anxiety, issues related to spirituality , survivors of trauma, those in recovery (from racism and other forms of oppression). I enjoy working with older adults.

Hi there! I'm glad you are taking a courageous step to focus on your wellbeing. Whether you are seeking therapy for the first time, returning, or looking for a new therapist, you are right where you need to be if you are looking for a warm and caring therapist who is passionate about trauma, grief, life transitions, identity, relationships, and faith and spirituality . I help women of all ages and faiths relieve anxiety and depression, heal childhood and relationship wounds, navigate grief and life transitions, and gain more tools to cope with life, work, and relationships.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about me! My ideal clients are looking for a strength-based approach where they are more than a "psychiatric diagnosis." My clients come from many backgrounds - they are children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families - and are dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, women’s issues, anger management, ADHD, autistic spectrum disorder, addiction issues, couples therapy, and working through LGBTQ+ issues. I partner with my clients in the change process and empower them through using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and other tailored approaches.

With over thirty years of experience, I love working with couples and individuals who are in all seasons of the life cycle - from young adulthood to later life. I specialize in helping people resolve complicated relationship issues and interpersonal problems. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results..." is a saying in 12 Step programs. If those words resonate with you, I will be glad to help you try to understand what your patterns are about and how to change them. I am especially sensitiveto understanding clients in their cultural and faith contexts.

I view counseling and therapy as a conversation. It is my goal to help my clients identify and define what they value in life. Most negative emotions that we experience in life are due to frustrated efforts at achieving the things we value. Often we stand in the way of our own happiness due to unexamined expectations. I believe progress comes through increased awareness and understanding of one's core beliefs about self, others, and the world. I purpose to serve as a sounding board to this growth in awareness and understanding.

Approximately 50% of my clients have an addiction or are friends/family of an addicted individual. I am able to help you assess the addiction, understand how it is affecting you and your family, and help you develop a plan for recovery. If you are already in recovery, your counseling can further help you understand any underlying issues that may contribute to or drive the compulsions. This may include such things as anxiety, depression, life stressors, trauma, to name a few. I have a positive approach that focuses on strengths and success, building on those assets, more than pathology.

Working from an integrated Solution Focused/Narrative Therapy framework, you can expect that I will adjust my approach to help you wade through and resolve conflicts, emotional paralysis, betrayal and other relational problems, with a newfound sense of agency, hope and courage. While the problems that bring couples in for therapy may seem daunting, perhaps even feeling insurmountable to some, my work builds on the notion that problems are given their greatest opportunity for resolution by cultivating safe, loving, and secure relational attachments.

I am a licensed psychologist, a Jungian psychoanalyst and a certified addictions counselor. I also have training in recovery work, Gestalt therapy and am a certified yoga instructor. I use these perspectives appropriately for the unique benefit of the client who sits in front of me. I try to meet each person with freshness each session. I advocate for change in the power dynamic between people and within the psyche and support my clients to become their most authentic and fullest self.

Why am I here, and what are my lessons? The hard things in life, the things you really learn from, put you at a crossroads where you feel stuck and the pressure mounting. Everything is stressful and you feel powered down by the confusion, responsibilities and commitments. Something has got to give! Fortunately pain is an excellent teacher precisely because it gets our attention. I assure you the struggle you're experiencing now is guiding you. Struggle is a bonafide indication of real and important progress. Strength is in the struggle.

I have spent most of my life as a spiritual guide, teacher and psychotherapist. I have worked in Ireland, England, Wales and Nigeria over the past four decades. I have been very fortunate to have great teachers but my best teachers are those people that I have been most privileged to companion through their life challenges. What I am learning from all of my own life experiences is that each moment is filled with magnificence of the Divine and learning to attune to these great unfolding Divine moments is my continued life ambition.

The word psychotherapy comes from the ancient Greek word “psyche” and “therapeia”. Psyche means soul, and therapeia means healing. I look at psychotherapy as a process of soul healing. One may be facing a break down in relationships, a faith crisis, a sense of disorientation with nowhere to go, a life without meaning. It could be a loss of self worth. Or there may be old wounds that continue to bleed and require tending. Together we can listen to the deeper calling of soul, and work towards healing. We will go deep within to find answers, to piece the fragments together and work towards Wholeness.