Individual Therapy in Chicago
At Tides Mental Health, we provide individual therapy in Chicago for people working through anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship patterns, or a general sense of feeling stuck. Our team of licensed therapists offers both in-person and online sessions, creating a space where you can talk through what's actually going on without judgment.
The work happens through the relationship with your therapist, not just the techniques. Most clients notice things starting to shift within the first several sessions, though how long you stay in therapy is always your call, not a fixed program.
Book Free ConsultationYour First Step Doesn't Have to Be a Big One
Free 15-Minute Consultation
Tell us what's bringing you in, whatever stage you're at with understanding it.
Get Matched with a Therapist
Our intake team connects you with someone experienced in exactly what you're working through.
Build Your Care Team
If additional support like medication management isn't already in place, we help coordinate that alongside your therapy.
Personalized, Relationship-Centered Care
Individual therapy is one-on-one counseling with a licensed mental health provider, built entirely around you: your goals, your pace, and the specific challenges you're facing. Sessions typically run 45-50 minutes, held weekly or every other week, either in person at our Chicago office or through secure video from anywhere in Illinois.
You set the agenda each session, whether that's a specific situation you want to work through, a pattern you keep noticing, or simply how the week went. Your therapist brings structure and clinical expertise, but the direction of the work stays yours.
The strength of the relationship with your therapist matters more than which specific technique they use. Many clients notice a shift in how they relate to their own thoughts and emotions within the first several sessions, though the right timeline always depends on what brought you to therapy in the first place. Your therapist will check in on progress regularly and adjust the approach as your goals evolve.
Individual therapy works well for anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship patterns, identity questions, and the everyday weight of stress and life transitions. It's not a substitute for psychiatric medication management or crisis-level care; if you're in immediate danger, call 911 or the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline instead of waiting for an appointment. For everything short of that, individual therapy is where most people start.
Our therapists draw on CBT, DBT, ACT, mindfulness, psychodynamic, narrative, somatic, and solution-focused approaches, matched to you.
Start Healing TodayWhy Choose Tides for Individual Therapy
Culturally Responsive, Inclusive Care
Our therapists reflect a range of backgrounds, and cultural humility is part of how every clinician on our team is trained. You won't need to translate your identity or minimize your story to feel seen.
Expert Matching Process
We take time to understand your needs and goals to match you with a therapist whose training and approach fit, not just availability.
Relationship-Centered Approach
Proven interventions paired with genuine human connection, building self-awareness and resilience collaboratively.
Flexible Treatment Options
In-person sessions at our easily accessible Chicago location and convenient secure online therapy to fit your schedule.
Mental Health Concerns We Address
Anxiety & Stress
Anxiety can show up as racing thoughts at 2am, a knot in your stomach before a meeting, or a constant hum of worry that never fully switches off. In individual therapy, we help you understand what's driving your specific anxiety, whether that's generalized worry, social anxiety, panic attacks, or stress that's spilled over from work into everything else, and build coping strategies that hold up outside the therapy room, not just inside it.
Depression & Mood
Depression rarely looks like sadness alone. It can look like losing interest in things you used to enjoy, sleeping too much or too little, or going through the motions of your day while feeling disconnected from your own life. Our therapists work with you to understand the specific patterns behind your low mood and build a treatment plan focused on real, sustainable recovery, not just getting through the week.
Trauma & PTSD
Whether you're processing a single difficult event or the lasting effects of trauma that built up over years, trauma-informed care means your therapist moves at a pace that feels safe for you. We focus on helping your nervous system settle, making sense of what happened, and rebuilding a sense of safety and trust, in yourself and in the people around you.
Transitions & Relationships
A move, a career change, a breakup, a new baby, or simply the sense that you've outgrown the life you built: big transitions can shake loose old patterns in how you relate to yourself and to others. We help you get clear on what you actually want next and work through the relationship dynamics, family or romantic, that keep pulling you off course.
OCD & Intrusive Thoughts
Intrusive thoughts and compulsive rituals, whether that's checking, mental reviewing, or avoidance, can feel embarrassing to say out loud, but they're one of the most treatable concerns we see. Our therapists use exposure and response prevention (ERP) and other evidence-based approaches to help you build a different relationship with these thoughts instead of being ruled by them.
ADHD & Neurodivergence
If executive functioning, focus, or emotional regulation have felt harder for you than they seem to for other people, neurodivergent-affirming therapy starts from the assumption that your brain isn't broken; it just works differently than the systems around you were built for. We help you build systems and self-understanding that actually fit how your mind works, rather than pushing you toward neurotypical standards.
Grief & Loss
Grief doesn't move in a straight line, and it isn't limited to death; it can follow a divorce, an estrangement, a health diagnosis, or the loss of the future you had planned. Individual therapy gives you room to mourn on your own timeline, without pressure to "move on" faster than feels honest.
Self-Esteem & Identity
Chronic self-doubt, perfectionism, and a harsh inner critic often trace back to old messages about who you're supposed to be. We help you separate your own values and identity from those inherited scripts, including questions around gender, sexuality, culture, and belonging, so you can define yourself on your own terms.
Who We Serve
Teens & Young Adults
Between school pressure, social media comparison, and figuring out who they are outside of their family, teens and young adults carry a specific kind of weight. We support academic stress, identity exploration, emotional regulation, and the family conflict that often comes along with all of it, in a space that feels like theirs, not an extension of home or school.
Adults
Whether you're managing depression, anxiety, burnout from a demanding job, grief, relationship strain, past trauma, or just a nagging sense of being stuck, adult individual therapy meets you at whatever stage you're in, from a first-time client testing the waters to someone returning to therapy after years away.
Parents & Caregivers
Caring for a child, an aging parent, or a family member with a chronic illness often means your own needs quietly move to the bottom of the list. We help caregivers process the guilt, exhaustion, and identity shifts that come with the role, while finding a more sustainable balance between caring for others and caring for yourself.
Marginalized Communities
You shouldn't have to educate your therapist on the basics of your own identity before you can get to the actual work. Our team includes clinicians experienced in affirming, culturally responsive care for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, immigrant, and multilingual clients, so the context behind your experience doesn't need a footnote.
How Individual Therapy Works at Tides
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Looks at the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and helps you notice and shift the thinking patterns that keep anxiety, depression, or stress on repeat. Learn more about CBT.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Builds concrete skills for tolerating distress, regulating intense emotions, and navigating relationships, especially helpful when emotions feel like they escalate faster than you can manage them. Learn more about DBT.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Focuses less on eliminating difficult thoughts and more on changing your relationship to them, so you can move toward what actually matters to you even while anxiety or self-doubt is present. Learn more about ACT.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Uses present-moment awareness to help you notice reactive patterns as they happen, rather than getting swept up in them, which is often the first step toward doing something different. Learn more about mindfulness-based therapy.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Looks at how early relationships and past experiences shape the patterns you're living out today, useful when you keep bumping into the same conflict in different relationships or jobs. Learn more about psychodynamic therapy.
Somatic & Narrative Therapy
Somatic work pays attention to how stress and trauma show up in the body, while narrative therapy helps you separate yourself from the problem story you've been telling about your life. Learn more about somatic therapy or narrative therapy.
Signs It Might Be Time to Start Therapy
You Feel Stuck in the Same Patterns
You keep having the same argument, the same spiral of self-criticism, or the same reaction to stress, and nothing you try on your own seems to break the cycle.
Sleep, Appetite, or Energy Have Shifted
You're sleeping far more or far less than usual, your appetite has changed, or you're running on empty in a way that rest doesn't seem to fix.
You're Pulling Away From People
You're canceling plans, letting texts sit unanswered, or generally withdrawing from relationships that used to feel easy.
Something Specific Happened
A loss, a diagnosis, a breakup, or an event you can't quite shake is taking up more mental space than you want it to, and you'd rather not process it entirely alone.
You don't need to hit a crisis point before therapy makes sense. Plenty of clients start simply because they want to understand themselves better, not because something is "wrong."
Individual Therapy Near You in Lincoln Park & Lakeview
Lincoln Park & Lakeview
Our Chicago office sits right on the Lincoln Park/Lakeview border on N Halsted, an easy walk or short drive for clients throughout the North Side. If you've searched for a "therapist near me" in either neighborhood, our in-person sessions are built for that kind of convenience: consistent scheduling, easy parking and transit access, and a therapist who's just around the corner.
Old Town, River North & Wrigleyville
We also see plenty of clients coming in from just outside our immediate neighborhood, whether that's Old Town, River North, Wrigleyville, Roscoe Village, or North Center. If your commute to a downtown therapist felt like one more thing on your plate, our Lincoln Park/Lakeview location is usually a shorter trip.
Online Therapy, Anywhere in Illinois
Can't make it to Lincoln Park or Lakeview? As long as you're physically located in Illinois at the time of your session, our secure telehealth platform puts the same therapists and the same individual approach on your laptop or phone, whether you're across the city or across the state.
Our Wilmette Office
Clients on the North Shore, including Wilmette, Evanston, and Skokie, don't need to trek into the city at all. We also have a Wilmette office, so you can choose whichever location is the shorter drive, or mix in-person sessions there with online therapy the rest of the month.
What Individual Therapy Costs in Chicago
Using Insurance
Session cost depends on your therapist's licensure level, whether they're a fully licensed clinician or working under supervision, and whether you're using in-network benefits or out-of-network reimbursement. Before your first appointment, our intake team reviews your specific plan with you: copay, deductible, and how many sessions your plan typically covers, so you know what to expect on the bill before you book anything.
Paying Out of Pocket
Some clients choose to pay privately, either because their insurance doesn't cover mental health at the level they'd like or because they'd rather keep their sessions off their insurance record entirely. Rates vary by clinician, and our intake team can walk you through private-pay pricing on your consultation call so there's no guessing before your first session.
What to Expect: Your Individual Therapy Journey
We offer a complimentary consultation to discuss your mental health concerns, answer questions, and ensure we're the right fit. Our intake team helps match you with a therapist whose expertise aligns with your specific needs and goals.
Once you decide to start therapy with our practice, our secure client portal makes onboarding simple. Our mental health providers take extra care during this important first step, understanding that beginning counseling can feel overwhelming.
Your licensed therapist will focus on building rapport and creating a welcoming environment. We'll explore what brought you to therapy, discuss your goals, and develop a collaborative treatment plan. This therapeutic relationship forms the foundation for your healing journey.
Expect weekly or bi-weekly therapy sessions scheduled through our online portal. Your therapist will work collaboratively with you, tailoring the approach based on your unique mental health concerns, whether you need new coping skills, deeper emotional processing, or strategies for current stressors.
Many clients appreciate between-session work like journaling or mindfulness practice. We regularly check in about your progress and therapeutic relationship to ensure you're getting the most from your mental health care experience.
Every few sessions, your therapist will check in on the goals you set together and how things are actually going, not just how the session felt, but whether your day-to-day life is shifting. If something isn't working, that's the moment to adjust the approach, change the frequency of sessions, or talk through whether it's time to focus on something new.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Therapy is a private, confidential space; your therapist will review the specifics and any legal limits to confidentiality with you at the start.
Many of our therapists attend to how stress and emotion show up in the body, integrating body-aware and somatic practices when helpful.
It depends on your goals; some focus on a specific concern, others value longer-term support. We revisit goals together throughout.
Yes, sessions are available in-person at our easily accessible Chicago location and through secure, confidential online therapy. Illinois law requires you to be physically present in the state during a telehealth session, so if you travel outside Illinois often, let your therapist know so you can plan around it.
Cost depends on your therapist's licensure level and whether you're using insurance or paying out of pocket. Our intake team will walk you through session rates and, if you have insurance, help you understand your specific benefits (copay, deductible, and out-of-network reimbursement) before your first appointment, so there are no surprises.
During your free consultation, we ask about what brought you to therapy, the kind of support that's worked (or hasn't) for you before, and any preferences around identity, background, or approach. From there, our intake team matches you with a therapist whose training and style actually fit, rather than whoever happens to have an open slot.
There's no fixed number. Some clients come in with a specific concern and feel ready to wrap up after 8-12 sessions; others use ongoing weekly or biweekly therapy as long-term support. You and your therapist will revisit your goals regularly, so the length of care stays a decision you're making together, not something decided for you upfront.
In practice, the terms are used interchangeably, and both describe one-on-one work with a licensed mental health provider. "Counseling" is sometimes used for shorter-term, issue-specific support, while "therapy" can imply deeper or longer-term work, but the distinction isn't a formal one. What matters more is the fit between you and your provider.
Tell us. The therapeutic relationship is central to whether therapy actually works, so if something feels off after a session or two, reach out to our intake team and we'll help you switch to a different provider on our team, no awkward conversation required.
About Tides Mental Health
Tides Mental Health is a Chicago-based group therapy practice providing inclusive, compassionate mental health care for individuals, couples, and families. From our Chicago and Wilmette offices, our team of licensed clinical therapists offers evidence-based treatment with both in-person and secure telehealth options. We are committed to accessible, culturally responsive care that empowers every client to navigate life's challenges and move toward a more fulfilling life. New clients typically start with a free 15-minute phone consultation before ever committing to a full intake appointment.
Ready to Start Therapy in Chicago?
The right therapeutic relationship can change everything. Begin with a free 15-minute consultation, a no-pressure conversation that helps us match you with the right therapist for you.
Book Free Consultation