Substance Use Therapists in Merrillville, IN

Awakenings Counseling Center offers a wide range of mental health and addiction treatment services. Awakenings has provided services throughout the Northwest Indiana Region for 25+ years. Awakenings works directly with Lake County and Porter County Drug Court as well as Lake County Community Corrections Work Release Program. Our goal at Awakenings is to be able to provide you with the tools needed to be the best version of yourself for you and those around you. You deserve to live a healthy and productive life.

Lisa (she/her) earned her MS in Psychology from Purdue, and completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology with specializations in Addictions, Neuroscience, and Women's Studies from IU. Lisa approaches therapy with warm and grounded energy and a collaborative style. She offers experience and expertise in treating mood disorders, PTSD, Substance Use Disorders, anxiety, grief, adjustment disorders, and navigating life transitions. Lisa is adept in evidence-based therapies like CBT, REBT, MI, and DBT, specifically tailoring those methods to the individual, empowering clients to overcome challenges; unlocking your full potential.

Do you find yourself overwhelmed with emotions that are hard to understand, let alone manage? Do you sometimes feel hopeless, finding it difficult to engage in things you used to enjoy? While moments in life can feel hopeless, there is hope! With therapy, you can work to overcome painful emotions and make changes that align with your values. I will work with you to develop and learn the tools necessary to lead the life you envision for yourself and to meet your goals. To accomplish this, I focus on creating a safe place for you to explore your feelings and experiences, while offering concrete tools for change.

Hello and welcome. I would like to see where you are in your life and talk about what things you might feel need to change. I will partner with you and discuss what things in your life are troubling or something you might just need to talk about. I will partner with you and together we can decide if or what changes you want to make in your life.

My ideal client is someone who is willing to allow themselves to be vulnerable. You can be raw with your thoughts, feelings and emotions. It's okay if you are confused and stressed. It's okay if you're angry, hopeless or simply wanting to vent. My goals are your goals, but be warned, I will challenge and hold you accountable too.

Starting counseling is a significant decision. Counseling can sometimes lead to intense emotions, and clients sometimes feel worse before they feel better. However, counseling often leads to significant symptom reduction, increased satisfaction in interpersonal relationships, greater personal awareness and insight, and increased skills for managing stress.

We all seek a way to feel heard, understood, and valued for who we are. Often, finding the right way to express our needs and values with those we love can get a bit lost in translation. I work with many individuals, couples, and families to reconnect and focus on expressing their wants and needs to each other to reduce tension and promote life-long skills that can be applied in any relationship. Knowing that there is hope and a safe space to work through some of life's most difficult challenges can be a life-changing experience I wish anyone to have.

My ideal client is one who is ready to make a change, be challenged and is willing to do the work and take the necessary steps to improve their quality of life as well as their relationships whatever they may be. They believe they are capable of much more than they have ever realized or what they were told by certain people in their lives. They want to become un-stuck and learn new strategies and approaches to the struggles that have prevented them from living a life worth living.

My practice is made up of primarily adults. I enjoy working with individuals as well as couples. My primary goal for treatment is to provide a comfortable, non-judgmental environment where my client's feel open and comfortable processing issues in their lives and improving mood or anxiety symptoms. I have experience working with a variety of diagnostic issues including (but not limited to) depression, anxiety, bipolar, addiction issues, marital discord, adjustment problems and ADHD. In addition, I also offer psychological testing services to clarify diagnoses, direct treatment and provide assessment and recommendations for treatment.

Over the years and after receiving thousands of initial calls and emails from clients, it is clear that many are unsure of what they need or where to go. We find great pleasure in helping clients navigate this process. As a group practice we are able to provide services for a variety of needs: anxiety, addictions, pain management, depression, relationship issues, psychological testing, individual, life transitions and even helping clients who just want to live their best life! We stand out in our efforts to make this process as smooth as possible. Many providers boast about their training in a particular treatment approach (and this is important) but research suggests that the interventions are only part of the story. The fit between client and clinician, the wellbeing of the clinician, the ease of access and the experience of the treatment process matter as much, and sometimes more, than the particular treatment model used. Pillars of Wellness was founded with the hope of ensuring an ideal client-clinician fit and providing both clients and clinicians with a positive experience. We let our clinicians excel at their craft by giving them the space to create their ideal practice.

I view it as an honor and a privilege to work with those who have the personal courage it takes to make changes in their lives. At any age, we all have potential for growth and change. "Finding the good and building on that" is a philosophy I strongly embrace. I see it as my job to listen carefully to you and then partner with you to help reach your identified goals. Together we can work toward your self-empowerment, rediscover your capacity to make peace with the past, live well in the present, and create the future you desire.

I have been working in the field of counseling for 25+ years. I have had the pleasure of working with individuals from many walks of life with various issues. I have worked with very diverse populations including federal pre-trial, post-conviction and probation clients, all areas of substance abuse issues, drug testing, anger management, EAP services, rapid response emergency services, grief/loss, domestic violence, family services, marital, youth, and spiritual counseling. I have extensive experience working in the area of high conflict co-parenting-divorce issues .

If you are struggling to find some peace and happiness, I am here to help. If you are frustrated by injustice in the world, I feel your pain. Combining neuroscience, social awareness, and evidence-based theory allows me to offer treatment methods that are unique to each person's needs. Whether you are experiencing depression, anxiety, relationship problems, or simply feeling lost and need some guidance, I hope to be that support for you. Let's work together to find you some relief.

My passion is in working with adolescents, however, I also enjoy working with preteens (11-13), families, and young adults. I believe that creating a calm, comfortable, and open atmosphere for counseling can allow clients to let their guard down and feel as comfortable with the therapeutic process as possible. My goal is to empower clients to help themselves realize their true self, work on building on their strengths, process and learn from past experiences, and make both positive and pro-active adjustments moving forward. I want to assist clients with their personal growth as they become the best version of themselves.

Contact me if you are looking for guidance through difficult times. whether loss, life transitions or managing increased feelings of anxiety, depression or dissatisfaction I will walk with you and assist you in exploring these challenges. Primarily, I see adults and couples. I utilize a variety of approaches, from psychodynamic, existential, transpersonal narrative and somatic to foster a more engaged, present and future. You are not alone on on this journey.

Are you frustrated with waiting lists? Are you finding it difficult to find a clinician in your time of need? Responsive and responsible mental health care still exists! CLEAR is a group of mental health professionals who believe in providing evidence-based, cost effective, and timely treatment to our clients. Your needs will not be handled haphazardly! We provide intentional treatment interventions from approaches that are widely known in the profession to be most reliable at treating an identified issue. We embody expertises in treating anxiety, depression, mood, trauma, personality and impulse disorders.

Life is about the journey, not getting to the station. Take charge of yourself and live your life. Make it a masterpiece. In the past 27 years, I have worked in community mental health, inpatient and outpatient settings, corrections and private practice. I specialize in trauma work, EMDR, gender issues, addictions, mood and personality disorders. We are stronger than we believe we can be. Together we will discover that strength.

There are many obstacles that face us every day and it is not always easy taking them on alone. The first step is realizing that we all need help at times and that’s okay. There’s a strength and a courage that is present when we take that step to seek help. My goal is to help you reach your best potential to lead a life that you want to live. Let's work together to achieve your desired goals!

I work with clients consisting of a wide range of ages including adults, adolescents and children. My experience includes treating clients who struggle with ADHD, anxiety, depression, ODD, OCD, trauma and many more. I provide techniques that are Evidence-Based and utilize CBT and Motivational Interviewing, to help serve clients to achieve their needs while working with their strengths. I have extensive experience; including leadership roles, providing services within the community treating individuals that have been involved with the Department of Child Services and have high complex needs.