Lesbian Therapists in Margate Park, Chicago, IL

When we are feeling overwhelmed and uncertain, seeking therapy can be a daunting experience. It is my goal as a therapist to foster connection and create a space for you to unpack life's challenges. I work with adults who are seeking change in their lives. My clients often come into counseling dealing with anxiety, overwhelming life transitions & identity and relationship issues. I believe that finding connection with others is key to change in our lives and that with empathy and reflection, you have the capacity to grow and develop as a person.

Are you functional, even successful on the outside but deal with insecurities and worry that your problems are interfering with your work or relationships? You might have lingering impacts from things that happened in childhood or in toxic relationships. Most of my clients are women who are overthinkers and people- pleasers and suffer from being very self-critical. I think of our work as "recovery from everything." The positive coping skills we work on are quite similar no matter what has caused you such high levels of anxiety.

Has Openings- Sometimes we lose our way, have parts of ourselves we wish to change, or long for better relationships. While I work with everyone, I have specialized in working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and queer individuals. As a result, I am familiar with how the world around you can make it difficult to get your needs met. Therapy provides a space where we consider your unique experience without judgment or criticism and help you find a path forward that is inclusive of your needs. I offer an affirming environment to help you pay attention to what you really want and who you really are.

I have been working with clients since 1991. Over the course of my training and experience, my style of therapy has evolved to an integrative approach combining humanistic, feminist, and psychodynamic theories of personality development with an approach that emphasizes the adaptive development of identity across the lifespan within broad interpersonal, social, and cultural contexts. I seek to find what is working well for you, help you understand the experiences that brought you to this place in your life, and use your strengths to help you grow and develop insight as well as create behavioral change.

I strongly believe in every individual's ability to bring about meaningful changes through self-awareness. A trusting relationship between a client and therapist offers a safe space to reflect on our experiences, our histories that we carry with us, and the way in which these histories impact our present experiences. I understand that every client's personal journey is unique; therefore, my approach is tailored to fit the specific needs of each client.

At some point in our lives, we all encounter difficulties. These hard times may be related to our relationships, past or current traumas, work challenges, health problems, among others. My approach is to focus on the entire person, mind, body, and spirit. This involves taking a holistic view of the client and integrating healing practices for all facets of your being. My first goal is to get to know you and co-create a healing plan for you. I will partner with you to find what works best for you.

I work best with clients who are curious about themselves and who are ready to examine what could be better in their lives and relationships. You and I will collaborate to understand your current pain in terms of your past struggles and the protective coping strategies you've utilized to make it this far. We will build compassion for parts of you that may be critical, fearful, ashamed or hopeless, and we will study the relationships you have with these parts, with other people, and with the world while building skills to regulate your nervous system, inhabit your body more fully, and experience joy, connection and pleasure.

I am an LCSW, LPHA that has worked with children, adolescents, and adults in a variety of situations and populations. My experience includes but is not limited to trauma, depression, anxiety, relationship issues, and self-esteem/self-empowerment. I have worked devotedly in underserved populations including communities of color and the LGBTQ community. Whether you seek self-awareness, emotion regulation, or a new level of calm and peace in your life I am committed to supporting your personal growth and progress.

I believe that, given adequate time, space, and resources, all individuals are capable of self-directed change regardless of their presenting problem. I also believe that therapy can often be the missing factor for those who seek but are unable to successfully make positive life changes on our own. As a counselor, I facilitate change by working with and through the client. As client and counselor, we work together, as a team, to best meet the client’s needs by setting, and then pursuing, realistic, attainable treatment goals.

Hi, and welcome. Wherever you are on your journey, whatever may be taking place inside your mind, your body, or around you in this moment— welcome. As a social worker for nearly a decade, my experience includes work with adolescents, twenty-somethings, and adults in the non-profit and private sectors. I ground my practice in values of intersectionality, warmth, and creativity. I use the lens of relational psychodynamics, feminism, and queer theory to support both individuals and couples.

I am passionate about working collaboratively with my clients on their unique mental health goals. As a clinical social worker at a community mental health agency, I have experience working with folks struggling with their relationship with substances, complex trauma backgrounds, and more. I am committed to meeting my clients where they are at and working together to help overcome life's challenges. I embrace my queer identity, and I enjoy working with folks who identify as LGBTQIA+ and are looking for a clinician who is aware of the specific challenges and intersectional issues we face within our community.

Therapy is a place that balances acceptance and change. Maybe you have noticed an imbalance in your life and are struggling to either find out or work towards what matters most to you. I want to be your collaborator as we work towards what you care about by integrating mindfulness, looking at past patterns, and understanding how larger societal systems impact you. My goal is to help you live a life you feel connected to and are proud of. The success of our work together is dependent upon the establishment of a solid relationship between us and collaboration.

I believe my role as a therapist is to help you hold and find meaning in your pain, and delight with you in what is playful and pleasureful in your life. My approach is warm, direct, and collaborative. I am interested in creating a genuine, transparent and accountable relationship with you. My hope is that within our relationship we can identify and interrupt harmful patterns that may emerge in your relationships and reinforce patterns that bring you joy and connection. Therapy is inherently political, and I aim to engage with my clients in ways that are liberatory, anti-racist and affirming of their intersecting identities.

I am professionally curious and goofy by nature, and I have been told that humor is one of the medicines that I bring into the clinical space. I have been a practicing holistic trauma therapist for the last 10 years and my approach is person-centered and relational. I work with folks who may be feeling sad, stuck, or overwhelmed in their current lives and are ready to explore change.

I will support you in building your body-mind connection to deepen your inner strength and capacity to confront the challenges life brings you. As a dance/movement therapist and licensed clinical professional counselor, I merge the felt experience with cognitive processing to support full integration in your healing process. We know that the body remembers all it has experienced. Let's give your body, brain, and heart the opportunity to work together to help you heal. I will support you in building the skills, insight, and ability to face the hard stuff and find your power, hope, and confidence to keep building a life you will love.

The urge to not just exist, but to thrive is universally one of the toughest challenges that one can learn to navigate. It can be even harder when you may not feel equipped with the tools to prepare yourself for this massive endeavor. You may feel the need to mask, or hide your truest self in order to ‘get by’ and make things easier on yourself and others around you. I try to tell clients that they deserve to allow themselves to be the truest version of yourself, no matter what that may look like or what society may think. I am here to help guide you through the veil of uncertainty so that I can help you be your most authentic self.

Starting therapy can be daunting. People often seek a therapist because they are experiencing distress of some kind. This distress can take many shapes: anxiety, grief, difficulty moving through a big life event, coping with a chronic medical or mental health condition, relationship issues, workplace stress and burnout, isolation. My approach to therapy involves creating a safe and supportive space to look at and learn from this distress. This may involve finding patterns that have kept you struggling, healing from past harms, and exploring and expanding your existing strengths.

I believe trusting relationships, creativity, and community are at the heart of inner peace. I offer you a compassionate, empathetic, playful, and non-judgmental space. Trauma influences life, the body, and brain in complex ways and therefore sometimes in therapy we need to talk, and sometimes we need to pause, move, or create. I am informed by attachment theory, psychodynamic approach, and embrace the relational element of healing. As a musician, and with music therapy training, I understand the regulatory power of art and invite you to integrate expressive elements. I offer music-centered and songwriting focused sessions.

Making changes in our lives can feel impossible at times, even when our habits and thinking patterns no longer serve us. In the therapy room, I practice radical acceptance with the ups and downs of growth with humor, patience, and curiosity. Grounded in the DBT tradition, I prioritize nonjudgment and dialectical thinking: we can accept difficult realities and still lead a life worth living.