Taking time to understand and express yourself is the ultimate investment in your mental health.
...being human is hard. Even when “everything is ok,” we live at one million miles per minute resulting in stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. Taking time to understand and express yourself is the key to addressing these challenges, and further, it is the ultimate investment in your mental health. Come sit, sip, and speak with me!
At Expression and Espresso, PLLC, I aim to empower my clients to...
Before we get started, it is imperative that we define what it is that we are targeting in treatment. This will be addressed in our very first intake session. Goals can range from “acquire coping skills to navigate stressors in the workplace” to simply “improve quality of life;” there is no “right or wrong” when it comes to YOU and your needs! If you can’t articulate your goals, that’s ok! That is something that we can figure out and define together.
After we define your goals, it typically takes 2-4 sessions for me to get to know you, your needs, and any other pertinent information necessary to address your concerns. I will walk you through my approach, the system of tracking progress, and provide you with any relevant education and resources. We will then collaborate on and go over your treatment plan. Simply put, the treatment plan is a working document that will guide our work together and can be adjusted to reflect any changes that need to be made in real time.
It is important that you feel empowered to be you in this process! We will define your values, wants, and needs to help guide our work together. This looks different for every individual and contingent on life stage, circumstances, and a myriad of other factors at play. Finding and feeling confident in your voice is the ultimate healer when faced with challenges.
I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), a Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional (CCATP), and trained to render Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. I graduated from Loyola University Chicago with my Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and obtained my Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. I have worked in a myriad of clinical settings including intensive outpatient programming (IOP), therapeutic day school, private practice, and telemental health. Additionally, I have advanced training in providing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and I round out my approach by integrating feminist theory and a social justice lense in efforts to empower my clients on both an individual and systemic level.
I recognize the limitations that come with my identity as a cisgender white woman. Thus, it is a priority to me that individuals who hold identities that differ from mine feel welcome in the therapeutic space. I work to be apart of the American Counseling Association's decolonization and active antiracist practices as well as to be an actionable ally for those who may be impacted by inequities that our society and healthcare system perpetuate. I have extensive training and experience, too, working with individuals of the LGBTQIA+ community. It is my hope that, no matter who you are or how you identify, you feel safe to express yourself in our work and that we can navigate these conversations and issues in a constructive and therapeutic manner.
Finally, I have a special interest in helping individuals cultivate an awareness of their mind-body connection through mindfulness techniques as I believe that this is essential when creating a holistic approach to treatment. I work hard to ensure that your experience is both empirically driven and human all at once, sprinkling in humor and warmth to foster a sense of safety and compassion in the space. Simply put, I want this to be an approachable and effective process!
I am licensed to practice in the states of Illinois and Wisconsin.
When I’m not a therapist, I am an avid consumer of the arts, a
wannabe yoga instructor, a Dog Mom, and a lover of any and all
things Chicago!
