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Our Therapists
Colleen Carraher
LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER
Colleen is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with three years of experience providing therapy in a private practice setting. She received her Master's in Social Work from Dominican University, with a special focus on health and well-being.
Before working in a private practice, Colleen spent her time in community settings as an advocate for those impacted by domestic violence. Her experiences in this capacity influence her passion and motivation as a therapist, as well as her continued pursuit of social justice. She has a special interest in and value of understanding how a person and family’s exposure to trauma, oppression, marginalization, and grief/loss can impact the way they experience the world around them, as well as accompanying challenges with anxiety, depression, life transitions, executive functioning, and relational conflicts.
Colleen supports children, adolescents, and young adults by providing a safe, open, nonjudgmental, and fun space to explore their challenges, embrace their strengths, and feel empowered.
She would describe her approach to therapy as being client-centered, trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive, neurodivergent-affirming, and play-based. By prioritizing these lenses, Colleen ensures that each of her clients is able to be engaged and feel comfortable being their most authentic selves. She believes that showing up in the most genuine way creates the strongest therapeutic relationships, which in turn, creates the most optimal foundation for therapeutic growth and progress.
Shu Hudson
LICENSED CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR
Shu Hudson is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. She received her Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from North Park University. Shu thrives in providing a compassionate, client-centered space where individuals feel seen, heard, and supported in their healing journey.
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Her approach integrates evidence-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with a deep focus on uncovering and understanding core emotions—those powerful, often hidden feelings that drive our thoughts, behaviors, and relational patterns.
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Shu has specialized training in yoga and mindfulness, that enables her to bring a somatic awareness to therapy, helping clients reconnect with their bodies as a source of wisdom, grounding, and emotional regulation.
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Shu focuses on navigating anxiety, trauma, relationship challenges, or life transitions, working collaboratively to explore underlying emotional truths, challenging unhelpful thought patterns, and fostering meaningful, sustainable change.
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Shu’s goal is to guide each client toward greater self-awareness, emotional resilience, and a more empowered relationship with themselves and others.
JD Peters
LICENSED CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL COUNSELR
JD Peters (he/him), is Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Certified
Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CAADC). He earned his master’s degree in Addiction Studies: Advanced Practice from the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School, and spent his career walking alongside individuals and families navigating the challenges of addiction to alcohol and other substances, as well as the broader journey of healing and recovery.
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He works with people facing a wide range of concerns—from anxiety and depression to grief and trauma—and offers both abstinence-based and harm-reduction approaches depending on what feels most supportive for each person. He believes healing is deeply personal, and that change is hard to do alone. His role is to create a space where you feel safe, seen, and empowered to explore what works best for you.
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JD has experience working with LGBTQIA+ individuals as they navigate identity, relationships, internalized stigma, and family or societal stressors. He strives to offer affirming care that honors each
person’s truth and lived experience.
He draws from evidence-based practices like DBT, CBT, ACT, and Motivational Interviewing, blending these approaches into conversations that support growth, healing, and hope.
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Whether you're just beginning your journey or looking to deepen your understanding of yourself, JD is here to support you with compassion and curiosity.
Jori Brick
LICENSED SOCIAL WORKER
Jori is a licensed social worker who has experience working with children, adolescents, young adults, and parents on a variety of different issues. Jori has her Masters in Social Work from the Erikson Institute where she concentrated in infant and early childhood mental health.
Jori knows that childhood is the foundation of an individuals future and is dedicated to helping both children and parents create opportunities for positive growth and change. Jori values, above else, the therapeutic relationship between herself and each client. Her approach is trauma informed, client centered, and neurodivergent affirming.
In her work, Jori understands the importance of play and the innate ability children have to communicate their inner world through play based modalities. Jori uses art and play in sessions with clients across the lifespan.
Jori’s goal is to give her clients a safe space to freely explore the reasons they may be experiencing the world the way they are. Jori aims to help parents feel more confident in their ability to respond to their child’s needs and understand how they can create positive change at home.
Eden Butler
LICENSED PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR
Eden is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She earned her Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at DePaul University. Eden has experience working with adolescents, young adults, and adults experiencing anxiety, depression, life transitions, low self-esteem, and race-related stress.
In her work, Eden takes a client-centered, trauma-informed approach through a multicultural lens. Eden believes that each person is the expert and author of their own story. Eden’s goal is to guide and empower individuals to explore their authentic selves in a space that is safe, affirming, and culturally sensitive.
Ellie Schendzielos
LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER
Ellie is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who believes healing begins within safe, trusting relationships. She works to create a warm and nonjudgmental space where individuals feel seen, heard, and understood.
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Her work is informed by psychodynamic and attachment theories, and an understanding of nervous system regulation. She is attentive to how early relationships and life experiences shape emotional patterns, self-perception, and how we relate to others. Ellie also helps clients recognize how their nervous system responds to stress, supporting them in becoming more grounded, connected, and in control. Her approach invites greater self-awareness, emotional flexibility, and lasting change.
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Ellie is passionate about working with individuals who have dealt with various forms of overwhelming stress and trauma, focusing in particular on work with children and adolescents. She incorporates a range of modalities including play, talk, and art therapy, recognizing the unique ways children express themselves and explore their worlds. She meets each child where they are at and allows play and the relationship to serve as powerful tools for healing, growth, and connection. Ellie also strives to support parents and caregivers in understanding their child more deeply and fostering strong and healthy family relationships.
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Whether working with a child, teen, or adult, Ellie brings warmth, curiosity, and deep respect for each person’s story.
Kelly Baas
LICENSED CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR
Kelly is a licensed clinical professional counselor (LCPC) and registered expressive arts therapist (REAT). She received her masters degree at California Institute of Integral Studies. Kelly has worked for over ten years gaining clinical experience across the lifespan with children and adults struggling with social/emotional regulation and identity formation, children on the autism spectrum, adults with severe and persistent mental illness, and emerging young adults.
Kelly loves working with children and young people and uses a variety of art mediums to help them find their voice and work out what is troubling them. Taking a person-centered approach Kelly prioritizes the pace of each individual she works with as she constructs a foundation of safety and curiosity.
Kelly specializes in helping children and young people understand their worries and uncover internal resources that allow them to respond more effectively. Kelly prioritizes getting to know the unique perspective of each child so the therapeutic relationship can be a source of learning and skill building. She uses play, art, movement, and words to help children explore their anxieties and as well as their hopes and dreams.
Children who are experiencing overwhelming pressure, loss, questioning self-worth, or struggling with fear and anxiety can work through a process of play and art making lead by Kelly. In using their own hands to engage and create a child can connect to qualities that are essential to coping with stress, fear, and loss. Kelly carefully listens to each client in order to guide the use of talking and creative making to meet the needs that emerge. Common issues that Kelly can address with play and expressive arts therapy are anxiety, low self-esteem, navigating difficult life transitions, loss, overwhelming pressure, impulse control, and low frustration tolerance.
Leslie Velgach
LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER
Leslie is a licensed clinical social worker. She earned her Masters in Clinical Social Work at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, and her Bachelors in Social Work at Luther College in Iowa. Leslie has experience working with children, adolescents, young adults, and adults with various issues including depression, anxiety, coping skills, difficult life transitions, and building self-compassion. She has worked with individuals in many different settings ranging from individual and group therapy to crisis intervention in the Emergency Room.
Leslie practices from a strength-based approach and combines several modalities including cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, dialectical behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness. Throughout treatment, she works with clients to utilize coping skills, identify their core values, and develop a strong sense of self. Leslie believes that regardless of age, clients are their own expert and therefore aims to build a strong therapeutic relationship that provides a warm and accepting environment that can lead to positive change.
Ellen Oanes
LICENSED PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR
Ellen is a Licensed Professional Counselor and art therapist. She received her Masters degree in Art Therapy & Counseling from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ellen loves working with children and young people. She has experience working with neurodivergent children on issues such as social skills, impulse control, and emotional regulation. Ellen also has experience in providing affirming care to the LGBTQIA+ community.
As an art therapist, Ellen utilizes art and art making to facilitate therapeutic discussions and insights with her clients. She utilizes a wide variety of art mediums to explore, create, and investigate within therapy. This practice appeals to a wide variety of populations and experience levels–no prior experience with art is required! Ellen firmly believes in the healing power of art making and sharing that power with others.
Ellen’s practice as a therapist is founded on social justice and feminist frameworks, as well as relational-cultural theory. This means she conceives of therapy as a collaborative partnership between therapist and client, one that that relies on respect for each other’s knowledge and perspectives. Ellen holds space for all of a potential client's identities and cultures as you work together in the therapeutic
space.
Kaitlyn Doty
LICENSED CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR
Kaitlyn is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and graduate of the counseling program at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Kaitlyn specializes in working with children, adolescents, and families with clinical experience working with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, school anxiety and refusal, trauma, grief and loss, and life transitions.
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Kaitlyn uses a compassionate and collaborative approach to counseling, integrating person-centered philosophies to meet clients where they’re at.
Kaitlyn uses a strength-based and trauma-informed perspective to empower individuals as the authority of their own lives and foster resilience while moving towards positive change.
In her work, Kaitlyn uses traditional talk therapy combined with expressive therapies, play therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) depending on individual goals.
Through her approach, Kaitlyn is committed to providing a space where clients can be themselves, feel heard, and grow.
Katerina Rios
LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER
Katerina is a passionate and dedicated Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has experience working with children, adolescents, young adults, adults, and families in a variety of therapeutic settings. She has had the pleasure of working in residential treatment, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and community mental health settings.
Katerina earned a Master's in Social Work degree with a certificate in evidence-based mental health practice with children and adolescents from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Katerina tailors treatment using techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to best support clients' needs.
Katerina has experience working with clients navigating a variety of stressors including life transitions, depression, anxiety, relationship issues, and the exploration of racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities. She uses an intersectional and shared power approach when working with clients and believes the client should always be considered the expert of their situation.
Katerina prioritizes centering and affirming clients' identities in order to provide a safe, inclusive space that is conducive to vulnerability and empowerment. Clients can expect Katerina to use radical empathy and humor to form a strong, therapeutic alliance and create a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere.
Ryan Brandt
LICENSED PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR
Ryan is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Art Therapist. She earned her BFA with a concentration in painting, second major in psychology, and minor in children’s studies from Washington University in St. Louis, and she earned her Masters degree in Counseling: Art Therapy from Adler University.
Ryan has 10+ years of experience working with children, adolescents, teens, and young adults in various settings including schools, summer camps, hospitals, community mental health, and private practice. In her therapeutic practice, she specializes in working with individuals who have experienced trauma, are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and/or are navigating challenges with daily functioning as a neurodiverse individual. Ryan also works with youth who are not ready to verbalize their needs, but are looking for a creative outlet and safe space to express themself through art with no pressure of needing to talk.
As an art therapist, Ryan utilizes art and art making to facilitate communication and help her clients gain insight into themselves. She is experienced in using various art mediums to help clients navigate complex situations and explore their identity without the added pressure of needing to verbalize their thoughts. No prior art experience or high level of art prowess is needed for art therapy. Art therapy is about the creation of art, not the appearance of the final product!
Ryan takes a client-centered, strengths-based, and trauma-informed approach to therapy, utilizing principles from narrative therapy and choice theory, as well as Trauma-Focused CBT to inform her work. Ryan believes that each person is the expert on themself, and aims to empower the client and help them feel a renewed sense of confidence and agency over their life.
Allison Guimaray
LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER
Allison is a licensed clinical social worker who earned her Masters Degree in Social Work from Aurora University.
Allison works with clients experiencing various issues and concerns, such as anxiety, trauma, depression, life transitions, self-esteem, and interpersonal difficulties.
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Allison utilizes a strength-based and client-centered approach when it comes to therapy. She fosters the idea that supporting the client in a safe and empathetic environment is key to the therapeutic process. She is dedicated to helping clients recognize their true potential in order to lead a fulfilling and meaningful life.
Allison emphasizes modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) blended with mindfulness techniques. She believes that each person is unique in the type of support and assistance that they may need.
Allison is also committed to the belief that in learning more about oneself and developing healthy coping skills, anyone can grow and benefit in therapy.
Lina Antiporta
LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER
Lina is an experienced Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 15+ years of experience working with children, adolescents, caregivers, and adults of various cultural backgrounds. She has extensive experience supporting youth with navigating social, familial and academic stressors, along with anxiety and/or depression in hospital-based programs.
Lina is compassionate, affirming, and skilled at connecting with clients, which fosters an environment that is natural and safe for exploring personal perspectives and experiences. She weaves in techniques from treatment modalities like CBT, DBT, and Collaborative and Proactive Solutions. Lina focuses on promoting client’s strengths to support their growth in therapy. In addition to direct clinical care, Lina has experience providing training to interns and fellows, as well as providing clinical supervision to newly licensed clinicians.
Lina earned her Master of Social Work Degree from University of Illinois at Chicago, Jane Addams College of Social Work.
Vicky Delgado
LICENSED SOCIAL WORKER
Vicky is a licensed social worker who earned her Masters degree in social work at Loyola University Chicago.
Vicky has experience working with young adults, children, adolescents and their parents on a variety of different issues including social skills, self-compassion, emotional regulation, anxiety, life transitions and grief.
Vicky has worked in a variety of settings
including schools, summer camps and private practice.
In her work, Vicky understands the importance of experiences and how they can greatly
influence one's perspective in how they relate to themselves and others. She believes it
is important to process significant events, in order to gain a better understanding of
one’s needs and potential.
Vicky uses a relational and strengths-based approach to allow for her clients to feel supported along every step of the therapeutic process. She also uses elements of cognitive behavioral therapy and play therapy to support clients in their therapeutic journey.
Vicky aims to provide a warm, welcoming and safe space for her clients and feels honored to walk alongside each individual’s unique path
Georgina Haro
LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER
Georgina Haro is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and first-generation Mexican American therapist who brings a bicultural and bilingual perspective to her work. She understands what it’s like to navigate multiple cultures, identities, and expectations and she is passionate about walking alongside clients who are exploring where they come from and where they want to go next.
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Georgina works with children, teens, and adults navigating anxiety, depression, complex trauma, identity exploration, and major life transitions. She is also a certified perinatal mental health professional and provides a supportive space for those going through pregnancy and postpartum journey, holding space for the emotional complexity of these transitions.
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Her style is warm, collaborative, and grounded in cultural humility. She draws from a variety of approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), motivational interviewing, and mindfulness and tailors her work to each client’s unique story and strengths.
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Georgina believes that healing happens when people feel seen, supported, and safe to show up as their full selves. She also understands that our bodies often carry what we haven’t been able to put into words, stress, survival, and resilience and she incorporates grounding and body-based tools to help clients reconnect with themselves in a deeper way.
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Georgina takes a strengths-based approach to therapy and believes in supporting clients to connect with their resilience, values, and voice. She is committed to creating a warm, supportive space where clients feel safe to explore, reflect, and grow.
Katie Augustyn
LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER
Katie Augustyn is a licensed clinical social worker with over twenty years of clinical experience working with children, adolescents, families, and adults. Katie is the Clinical Director of Augustyn Family Services, a North Side agency that serves children, adults, and couples.
Katie previously worked at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, where she provided therapeutic services to children and families dealing with chronic illness and disability. Katie received her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago. Katie has experience working with a broad range of mental health issues, including anxiety, trauma, grief, domestic violence, and family conflict.
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Katie is also a founding member of a non-profit organization that provides services to disabled children, KT’s Kids.