Teletherapy for Margate Park - Chicago, IL

“After trauma the world becomes sharply divided between those who know and those who don’t. People who have not shared the traumatic experience cannot be trusted, because they can’t understand it” - Dr. B. Van Der Kolk. Because of my own experiences with trauma, I have a unique understanding of the importance of working with someone who “gets it”. Trauma and grief are incredibly heavy and affect all aspects of our lives. Through therapeutic work, I have found my way to the other side. My passion is to help others do the same.

All of us yearn for a sense of belonging, and it is human to feel lonely due to issues we may be facing in life. Feeling alone can have a detrimental impact not only to our mental/emotional health, but also physical health. I'm here to support you in your mental health journey and working towards a better quality of life. I strive for social justice and am attuned to the impacts and influences of society and culture. I approach therapy from a trauma-informed and harm reduction lens, meaning I’m sensitive to the past experiences that have shaped you into who you are today while working in a collaborative approach.

I believe it takes courage to know yourself deeply. I want to create a space where you can begin to know yourself better, uncover connections between past and present, and build out a life that makes you proud. I want to honor the strength and knowledge you already hold, and create a partnership where we can talk about what feels most tender, scary, and exciting. I believe that understanding your past can help illuminate struggles in your present, and can offer a road map towards change. We can work together to explore ways in which you can feel safer in your body and more confident in your ability to handle life’s challenges.

Dr. Sirota specializes in working with emerging adults, young professionals, students, and clients with complex intersecting identities. She has a particular interest and experience in depression and anxiety, as well as concerns related to identity development, grief/loss, social justice, family of origin, and interpersonal dynamics. She also has extensive experience in the training and supervision of therapists-in-training.

Life's challenges can overwhelm us and leave us feeling chronically stressed. An understanding and kind therapist can provide relief by making sense of our thoughts and feelings, and helping to find new ways of coping. I believe that good therapy helps people create more fulfilling relationships, nurture talents and abilities, have healthier self-esteem, deepen self-awareness, renew hope and adjust to and cope with life's inevitable challenges.

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.

My clients generally have a sense that something in their lives requires a big shift & seek support & guidance from a professional. Whether it is clarity about relationships, healing from a traumatic event, or taking control of anxiety - I work with you to reveal blind spots, be less reactive, more grounded, and stop getting in your own way; by empowering you to reclaim your inner peace and move forward with renewed strength and resilience. I genuinely trust that my clients know what is best for them and my job is to guide them toward their personal truth that was there all along.

I seek to provide a haven where clients can feel safe to explore whatever surfaces in their present challenges, transitions and internal experience. Many times thoughts, emotions, behaviors and experiences are understood, and personal truths can surface, particularly because of the safety and trust found in the therapeutic relationship. Ultimately this place of trust and non judgement is the core of healing and where personal growth occurs. While there are many models of treatment this is the essence of what I seek to offer and value most.

It's a privilege to assist individuals and couples who want to make their lives better. I love my work, even more than when I received my initial social work degree. Returning to school later to get my doctorate and teach, I always maintained a private practice. In a nutshell, my philosophy is that I partner with my clients to figure out what they can do to improve their relationships and sense of well-being. Though I have a special interest in infertility and incest survivorship, I work with individuals and couples who struggle with any number of life challenges.

My areas of expertise include relational concerns, anxiety/depression, emotion regulation, young-adult development and life transitions (moves, school/career, divorce/separation, etc.) Interpersonal difficulties with repetitive arguments, communication and messaging, lack of understanding, stonewalling/withdrawal, infidelity, difficulty navigating needs and expectations. Together we will identify patterns, stressors, the role of beliefs, goals and emotions in motivating behavior. Life comes with problems, and success is dependent on navigating the ups and downs.

Ecotherapy in Chicago! In our society loneliness persists and collective grief is carried, I turn to the logic of nature which holds the journey of life, death, and rebirth. Problems are rites of passage through this cycle, whether intimacy issues in relationships, a child’s "misbehavior,” anxiety or depression. These ordeals reveal new avenues for growth in embodiment, awareness, strategy building, and meaning making. Several therapeutic frameworks - Systems Theory, Jungian and Adlerian Depth Psychology, Ecotherapy, Sandtray, Meditation, and Ritual building - all form a decolonial and holistic lens to the human experience.

Starting therapy takes great courage, and I would be honored to work with you. I am warm, collaborative and strengths based in my approach. I will carefully attend to the context of your life with a particular emphasis on intersectionality. I have extensive experience working with adults coping with severe and persistent mental illness, depression, anxiety and the impacts of trauma. I have special interests in grief recovery, trauma recovery and the needs of women and LGBTGEQ+ people.

Grief, loss, and trauma can have a profound and lasting impact on you or people you love. You may feel isolated from others and overwhelmed as you try to go about day-to-day tasks; you may struggle to feel safe, express your emotions, or understand how to make meaning from all that has happened. Other people might be telling you to “get over” it, as if grief has a deadline you haven’t met. Traumatic events from your past may bring up feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, or shame, which can prevent you from doing the things you want to do, affect your relationships, and make it hard to communicate or set healthy boundaries with others.

I am passionate in working with relational issues, either when helping individuals or couples and families. I believe that our relationships have an essential impact on our well-being. I am yet to hear a client or a friend or a family member talk about distress that is not somehow associated to a relational issue... Aren't we all longing to belong and to find safety and security in the arms of our loved ones (partners, parents or very dear friends that are like family)? And yet, these are precisely the people that can hurt us the most.

Thank you for taking a look at my profile. Reaching out for counseling can often be a difficult step. My style as a therapist is warm, compassionate and interactive. I use a client-centered approach to help clients discover their strengths and feel empowered to make changes, especially when feeling stuck. I provide support, empathy and insight with integrity and humor to allow clients to step back from stressful situations, gain perspective and feel better.

I have a compassionate and strengths-based approach to therapy. I believe that it is the relationship we build together that empowers you to work towards your goals. While treatment looks different for each person, I integrate techniques from cognitive-behavioral therapy, EMDR, psychodynamic theory, and trauma-informed practice into my work. As a bilingual/bicultural person of color , I am particularly interested in working with those who want to explore racial/cultural identity.

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.