I am dedicated to exploring the layers of shame, guilt, and fear that have prevented you from living the life you desire.
I have experience working with diverse individuals across the lifespan. My training has provided opportunities to work with a wide range of mental health issues. While the clients I work with experience a wide array of difficulties, here are several common struggles people are facing when they come to work with me:
Working Together
You hold the power to overcome within you.
You are not alone during this journey. My goal is to understand your unique situation to promote growth and healing. Working together, we will gain a deeper understanding of your current stressors, develop a plan for change, and achieve positive life changes.
I help people who feel completely overwhelmed and inadequate resolve feeling anxious or “not good enough.” Through compassionate exploration, we will work to focus on all that lies within your control to empower you to live the life you’ve always wanted.
We will work to find the tools to manage your emotions, to embrace them rather than try to control them. Finding unique solutions will help you feel better about yourself and to realize the version of you that you’ve always imagined.
Counseling is tailored to suit your unique needs, so thoughts and feelings can be safely integrated into meaningful change.
At the heart of our work is a Strength-Based approach. This model shifts from a traditional deficit-based approach to promote overall health by recognizing your strengths and competencies as the foundation of our work together. In addition to my focus on strengths, my integrative approach incorporates:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – incorporates acceptance and mindfulness to achieve committed action. The objective of ACT is not to avoid or eliminate difficult feelings but to learn how to embrace them without overreacting to them.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – an action-oriented approach focuses on developing personal coping strategies to solve current problems and change unhelpful cognitive patterns.
- Health at Every Size (HAES) and intuitive eating – seeks to de-emphasize weight loss and, instead, aims to be inclusive for people of all sizes. The focus is on honoring your body and becoming more in-tune.
- Motivational Interviewing (MI) – aims to increase awareness of the potential problems caused, consequences experienced, and risks faced as a result of the behavior in question. The goal of MI is to identify intrinsic motivation in order to change behavior.
- Person-Centered Therapy – also known as Client-Centered therapy – is a non-directive approach that allows you to lead the conversation with “unconditional positive regard” from the clinician, which entails empathy and support.
- Solution-Focused – focuses on addressing what you want to achieve, exploring the history of the problem(s), and developing concrete plans to move toward goals.
This combination creates an accepting space that allows us to identify the barriers preventing the growth you desire while continuing to focus on the strengths you possess to overcome those barriers. My aim is to help move past feeling “stuck” toward making meaningful changes that align with your values.
A Bit About Me
It takes courage for you to share about yourself, so I am going to take the first step here and share a bit about me…
- I absolutely hate cleaning, but I love a clean environment.
- My “must-read” book list continues to grow exponentially, and I am committed to someday reading them all!
- I like to think that I am a genius using analogies, but I will let you be the judge of that.
- I have a love for knowledge and often share random facts in sessions.
Qualifications & Certifications
- Doctoral Degree (Ph.D.) from Loyola University Chicago
- Licensed Clinical Psychologist in the State of Illinois
- Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology – click to see the full list of states where services can be offered
- Board-Certified TeleMental Health Provider (BC-TMH)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Intensive Training
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Intensive Training
- Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I)
- School Service Personnel (Type 73) – School Psychology in the State of Illinois
Stephanie Grunewald, PhD
We can help!
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