Somatic Therapists in Illinois

I have extensive experience and expertise in understanding the intricacies of trauma and its impact on mental and physical well-being. My approach integrates trauma-focused, mindfulness, attachment-based, holistic, energy, and somatic modalities. I am direct in my approach and work best with individuals who are ready for change. My specialties include: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Complex-PTSD, LGBTQ+ related Traumas and Challenges, Anxiety, Depression, Navigating Toxic Relationships and Healing from Abusive Relationships

How We Treat One Another Matters: For better and for worse, across our whole lives, we operate in relationships. Our views of our "self" and how we relate to others develop from how we have been treated in relationships. Our capacities to love, to learn, to become our best, all emerge optimally within healthy relationships. Likewise, wounds of heart and soul emerge from ways we have been treated and/or choices we have made which have hurt us, sometimes very deeply. Persons who have experienced relational trauma and/or overwhelming life stressors are ideal candidates for clinical services at Gateway.

I believe that healing and personal growth are deeply intertwined with the quality of our relationships, both with others and with ourselves. In my therapeutic practice, I prioritize creating a safe and nurturing environment for my clients, drawing upon principles of trauma-informed care, authenticity, and compassion. Through a collaborative approach, my goal is to empower clients to cultivate a deeper connection with themselves and their innate capacity for healing.

I provide counseling services to clients in Southern Illinois as a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. In 2021, I founded the Buehler Wellness Center to introduce NeurOptimal neurofeedback to individuals. I strongly believed that combining neuro-somatic techniques like ART, EMDR, and Brainspotting with neurofeedback would further enhance the flexibility and resilience of our clients' brains. The positive outcomes of our services are evident in our Google reviews, and our main goal has always been to promote overall wellness by delivering effective solutions that produce noticeable results.

I have an appreciation for complexity and understand that most of us live a life full of contradictions - striving for goodness, happiness, prosperity, low drama, and quality relationships. I get to witness clients create a foundation of safety from which they can pursue their personal and relational goals. I have a passion for working with both traditional relationships and alternative lifestyle clients, as individuals or couples. My clients are often unraveling past traumatic and toxic relationships or simply navigating the unknown with the goals of creating new, healthy patterns of communication, safety, and intimacy.

I’m a queer, Mexican-American, therapist who believes you are inherently awesome, and that sometimes our awesomeness needs to be recalibrated from time to time. Whether meeting individually, or as a part of a relationship/polycule, I value working towards opportunities for new growth and a better sense of self-awareness. I use an intersectional approach towards helping you reclaim agency in your life so that you can move forward courageously.

I believe everyone has the narrative to their own story and the answer they seek is within; sometimes it just needs a little compassionate digging. Because therapy isn't a life time based resource, I believe in empowering individuals to discover their own inner resource pool and teach new coping techniques to continue to build resilience and self compassion. My approach is race informed, trauma informed, and LGBTQIA+ friendly. The systems built around us exacerbate the amount of trauma we experience and further damage our capacity for recovery.

Hola! I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor from Chicago, Illinois who loves to work with young adults, adults, and families who are seeking a holistic and relational approach to mental health and overall well-being. I specialize in Somatic Experiencing (SE) and body-centered, mindfulness approaches. I provide bilingual, trauma-informed and culturally-responsive care for patients who struggle with complex and relational trauma, life transitions, grief, identity, and existential problems. I also provides support for post-traumatic growth, decolonization, integration, and self-embodiment.

I work with adults and couples from different walks of life. As a holistic practitioner, I’ve come to understand it’s a different dance for each person when working towards embodying their voice, choice, boundaries, and authenticity. I take into consideration your experiences relationally and with systems and how they may impact the relationship to your inner landscape. My identities: 1st gen Vietnamese immigrant, non-binary, queer, neurodivergent, polyamorous & ex-catholic. These identities shaped the way I move in the world while inspiring me to continue being curious & going outside of the box when I work with each unique human.

I believe relationships are fundamental building blocks of life. I strive to foster a non-judgmental, authentic, environment that honors the connection each individual has to the self, and the world in which they exist. My approach is collaborative, and focuses on client's fundamental inner strengths to promote growth and cultivate change. I lean into curiosity, humor, and compassion when working with my clients, and you can expect my techniques to be rooted in mind-body connection.

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.

Every person has the potential to live with more freedom, joy, ease, and love, and therapy supports us to realize this potential. Many of my clients have experienced various forms of relational trauma — including wounding that has occurred in intimate relationships or during their childhood — and yearn to heal from these experiences and find healthier ways of dealing with stress, anxiety, addiction, relationship difficulties, depression, and other challenging emotions and behaviors. My goal is to help you live with more peace, acceptance, autonomy, satisfaction, and intimacy with yourself and others.

I have current availability in Lincoln Park and online. Through attentive listening, inquiry, respect and acceptance, I provide a calm space for you to gain ground in reducing anxiety, depression, relationship conflict and more. I work collaboratively to help you identify goals and how to move toward achieving them. I regularly hear that clients feel better after a session with me. Being in the moment in and outside of session is something I help clients develop or strengthen. If you're looking to face difficult aspects of your life past and present, I have effective and gentle methods for helping you approach them with less fear.

I believe that we all have the right to find safety, empowerment, and acceptance in our own lives and in the relationships we value. My work begins with genuine curiosity, and continues toward leading clients into creating their own meanings from lived experiences. Working together, we can build up self-advocacy and allow for self-love to flow through so that you may choose how to begin creating practices of care and support.

We all long for deep, authentic connections, but we can often get stuck in old patterns with those we love. We end up sacrificing our needs, avoiding vulnerability, or "acting out" in ways we don't understand. I enjoy helping people with trusting their intuition, building self-esteem, communicating effectively, and creating meaningful boundaries and connections in relationships. I work with individuals, couples, and families of all ages, backgrounds, and identities. Together, we can identify new tools for navigating anxiety, depression, stress, and bodily symptoms often rooted in unresolved trauma.

Sometimes we struggle with unhealthy patterns and feel lost or less able to cope. Our sessions are a safe place to process relationship issues, work on making changes, & acquire tools to deal with life's stressors. We store much of our emotional past within our physical bodies; together, we'll learn to release that energy using all 5 senses to become more present. My therapy style is warm, collaborative, sexuality and gender-affirming. Since 2009, I have worked with a diversity of people in both inpatient and outpatient settings and helped many of them take the steps to turn pain into growth and regain control of their lives.

Struggling with issues related to trauma, grief, body image, connection, life changes, anxiety, or general unhappiness? Sessions involve a somatic collaborative approach to help you feel supported. We will discover your strengths and work on coping mechanisms specific for you to live a more balanced life. I strive for each client to feel empowered and choose to meet them where they are in a way specific to their own individual needs. With your agency and permission, I may utilize EMDR, movement and intuition, reiki, as well as psycho therapeutic factors to work towards healing. Humor and creative wonder are also invited in the room!

I'm a Taiwanese/Chinese second-generation immigrant who grew up in the Midwest. Born to first-generation immigrants, I've witnessed the ways my parents’ migration experiences and has worked to understand and break cycles of generational trauma. I've dealt with the forces of assimilation, gendered and racialized identity formation, and the need to establish a sense of belonging within an immigrant family surrounded by predominantly Christian, white communities. I've worked with individuals/couples that are challenged by anxiety, trauma, depression, stress, family/relationship conflicts, racial/sexual identities, LGBTQ+ issues, etc.

Most of us humans have experienced trauma or simply too much stress. Thoughts, body sensations, and images/memories/dreams can cause more emotional and physical pain--and vice versa. To get rid of these unwanted things completely may be expected goals; but to diminish and manage them with less pain or tension is more realistic. To be understood by others, to feel more safe, to feel supported, to receive usable feedback and new ideas--these are goals I will surely help any client experience. Somatic Experiencing facilitates clients in moving forward, at their own pace, building more resilience self-acceptance and confidence.