About Me

Hello! My name is Olivia and I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Chicago, Illinois. I’m deeply passionate about holistic mental health and in supporting my clients to rediscover their innate healing capacities.

I work with adults who seek deeper self-knowledge and meaningful change in their lives. I specialize in working with individuals who struggle with self-defeating thoughts and behaviors, feel "too much" or "too little" of their painful feelings, or have experienced challenging life events or trauma and who find themselves dealing with these stressors in ineffective ways.

As a therapist, my goal is to support my clients to feel more present in their daily lives, move through difficult emotions, find healthier ways of coping with stressors, expand their capacity for self compassion and acceptance, and show up in the world with greater authenticity, intimacy, and aliveness.

I enjoy and have experience working with people on a wide range of issues, including addiction, complex trauma, anxiety, depression, compulsive behaviors, relationship issues, and self-esteem disturbances. I also enjoy supporting people in various stages of spiritual and existential exploration and development.

Specializations

  • Complex Trauma
  • Drug & Alcohol Addiction 
  • Compulsive Behaviors
  • Anxiety
  • Depression 
  • Domestic Abuse & Sexual Violence
  • Underachieving, Overachieving & Perfectionism
  • Self-Esteem 
  • Relationship Issues & Codependency
  • Life Transitions
  • Spiritual & Existential Exploration

My Approach

My approach to therapy is insight-oriented, emotion-focused, and experiential. My therapeutic style is active, engaging, and compassionate. In session, this approach looks like:

  • Exploring the connection between your past experiences, often in childhood, and your current thoughts, relational dynamics, feelings, and actions

  • Identifying defense mechanisms, emotional triggers, and nervous system states

  • Naming and challenging entrenched beliefs and judgments

  • Feeling into and through emotions and somatic experiences as they arise in the present moment

  • Asking and chewing on big questions like: who am I, really? What sets my heart and soul on fire? What are my deepest longings, hopes, dreams, and visions for my life?

  • Undoing aloneness and shame that stem from past trauma and wounding

I am particularly energized by experiential therapies — a type of therapy that involves the use of expressive tools and actions like roleplaying, active imagination, and guided imagery to help individuals re-enact and re-experience emotional situations from their past or their relationships — and often utilize this approach in my work.

I have trained in the use of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), an experiential modality used in the treatment of trauma. Additionally, I use theory and methodology from other evidence-based modalities such as Internal Family Systems (IFS/parts work), Somatic Experiencing (SE), Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), and Coherence Therapy in my work with clients.

Acronyms, theory, and training aside, I am first and foremost an addiction and trauma therapist. What I’d want you to know about me and my approach is:

  • You are not your trauma, addiction, diagnosis, or shame. No one is fundamentally broken, and no one is unable to heal. My work is anchored in this belief.

  • My sessions tend to be experiential, body and emotion focused, and relational. I combine science and theory with the wisdom of the body in order to deeply process painful experiences, explore entrenched beliefs, uncover new insights about yourself, and find meaningful ways to recover.

  • I offer a space where you can be more deeply and directly in touch with the core of who you truly are: your body, mind, heart, and spirit. I aim to create a warm, compassionate, collaborative, and deeply human space for us to work in. My approach is tailored to you and my goal is for you to feel understood and supported.

Background

I have worked with adults, teens, and children in a variety of settings for the past seven years, including K-12 schools, a sexual and domestic violence resource center, and a residential drug and alcohol treatment center. I completed my Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to becoming a therapist, I taught middle school reading.

For most of my adult life, I have been invested in my own personal healing and therapy. Being a therapist combines some of my greatest loves – psychology, the mystery that is being a human, pursuing personal truth, and deeply connecting with others, to name a few. I find tremendous meaning through contemplative practices, spirituality, and personal therapeutic work, and am profoundly grateful for the depth, grounding, and guidance these supports have and continue to provide me with.

I consider myself a life-long student and am actively engaged in ongoing learning related to trauma, spirituality, interpersonal neurobiology, attachment, mindfulness, and somatic (body-based) therapies.

When I’m not working, I enjoy exploring Chicago on foot, reading literary fiction, eating cheese-flavored snacks, and giving my dog approximately 8,000 kisses a day.