Gail Reich, LCPC, CDWF

Young adulthood is an exciting stage of life that comes along with its own subset of issues.

Whether you are finishing school, moving on to another educational endeavor or entering your career, young adulthood is full of transitions and big decisions. You might be wanting to move away from family for the first time or starting your first serious relationship. Or it might appear on the outside that you have everything together, but perhaps you are doubting your next step, feeling stuck, and struggling with anxious or depressed emotions. Maybe you are feeling lonely despite being surrounded by people in your life that care about you. Or possibly you are in a good place and want to challenge your emotional intelligence or simply wish for an objective, knowledgable sounding board in your life.

If you want to make a change or explore what is going on, let's talk about it.

I empathize with the challenges young adulthood brings and I am here to help. I aim to create a safe and supportive environment to explore what is going on, in addition to helping you develop the skills needed to create the changes you are seeking. I am not a therapist who will simply smile and nod and ask how things are making you feel. I am in it with you and will work just as hard as you. Being extremely supportive, I will always be there for you, but will also call you out on your shit. While therapy is a space for self-care, it is also a place for growth. I am not afraid to talk about anything, so bring it on. 

I am passionate about this work and bring my whole self into the process. I recognize that each client is a unique person and has unique needs and I work hard to honor that. I truly enjoy helping my clients learn, grow and succeed.

Here are the more tedious details:

I earned my Master's degree in counseling psychology from Northwestern University. It was a great and challenging three years of my life. Technically speaking, I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, or LCPC for short.  I work from a psychodynamic viewpoint, and incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and mindfulness into my practice. I have extensive training in Dr. Brené Brown's work giving me the letters CDWF (Certified Daring Way Facilitator) after my name. Her work talks about shame, vulnerability, resilience and belonging (you know, just all the tough stuff that is universal to the human experience). I have also completed Level 2 training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. CBT, DBT and mindfulness provide great tools for coping in the moment and the psychodynamic elements and sensorimotor work get to the underlying causes and patterns to why things might be the way they are now. 

In addition, I have two bachelor's degrees in studio art. (I bet you don't hear that from most counselors!) I have BS from Skidmore College (I will always be an east coaster at heart) and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a focus in photography. Fun fact: I am also a professional ski and snowboard instructor, and have been an athlete my entire life, including the collegiate level. I believe that my experiences both coaching and being part of many teams has informed my work as a therapist in a really positive way.