Start by reaching out and telling us a little about what you're looking for. If you already have a therapist in mind, let us know. If you don't, we'll help you find someone based on what you'd like support with, your availability, insurance, and any preferences that matter to you.

Embrace offers in-person therapy in St. Charles and online therapy throughout Illinois.

Training and specialties matter, but so does whether you actually feel comfortable talking to someone.

Our therapist profiles can give you a sense of each clinician's personality, areas of focus, approaches, and the ages they work with. If you're still not sure, that's okay. Tell us what you're looking for and we'll help narrow it down.

Meet Our Therapists

Mostly, you and your therapist start getting to know each other.

You'll talk about what brought you in, what's been going on lately, relevant parts of your history, and what you'd like help with. You can ask questions too. There's no expectation that you'll explain your entire life or share everything difficult in the first 50 minutes.

You really don't need to.

There are a lot of therapy approaches out there, and nobody expects you to research your way into choosing the perfect one. Start with what you're dealing with. Your therapist can explain different options and help determine what might make sense from there.

Embrace therapists work with children, teens, and adults, although each clinician works with different age groups.

For example, some of our therapists see younger children while others focus on teens or adults. We'll make sure you're connected with someone who works with your age group.

Our therapists work with concerns including anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma and PTSD, grief and loss, chronic pain, substance use and recovery, relationship concerns, attachment, emotional regulation, stress, and major life transitions.

And sometimes what brings someone to therapy doesn't fit neatly into a category. That's okay too.

It depends a lot on the child's age.

Younger children don't always communicate what's happening by sitting down and talking about it. Therapy may include Child-Centered Play Therapy, Sandtray Therapy, creative activities, and other developmentally appropriate approaches. Therapy with teens is often more conversational.

Parents and caregivers may also be involved, while children and teens are given appropriate privacy with their therapist.

There isn't one specific point when therapy suddenly becomes necessary.

Parents may notice changes in mood, anxiety, sleep, friendships, school, motivation, anger, withdrawal, or how their teen handles stress. Teens also come to therapy for relationships, identity, ADHD, grief, family concerns, and simply wanting somewhere outside their everyday life to talk.

Trauma therapy looks at how difficult or overwhelming experiences may still be affecting your emotions, relationships, thoughts, body, or sense of safety.

At Embrace, trauma treatment may include talk therapy alongside approaches such as EMDR, Brainspotting, and Somatic Experiencing. What that looks like depends on the person and what they're comfortable with.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It uses bilateral stimulation while working with memories or experiences that continue to bring up a strong response in the present.

There is preparation before reprocessing begins, and your therapist will explain what's happening along the way. You don't need to walk in already understanding EMDR.

Brainspotting uses points in your visual field while you pay attention to thoughts, emotions, memories, or physical sensations that come up.

It can offer another way to work with something that feels difficult to explain or hasn't completely shifted through conversation alone.

Somatic Experiencing pays attention to how stress and difficult experiences show up in the body as well as the mind.

That might include noticing tension, changes in breathing, physical sensations, feeling on edge, shutting down, or becoming overwhelmed. Somatic work can happen alongside regular conversation—you don't have to choose one or the other.

You don't have to walk into therapy and immediately tell someone every detail of what happened.

Your therapist will spend time getting to know you, understanding what you're experiencing, and building enough trust to do the work together. You can ask questions, slow things down, and say when you're not ready to talk about something.

Embrace Counseling Center offers therapy in both English and Spanish.

Vanessa Hernandez, LCSW, CADC, CCTP, SEP is a bilingual Latina therapist who provides therapy in Spanish for adolescents, adults, and couples.

Yes. Bilingual therapy may be available online for clients located throughout Illinois, depending on therapist availability and whether telehealth is appropriate for the service you're seeking.

Reach out if receiving therapy in Spanish is important to you and we'll help you understand your options.