HUMBOLDT PARK COUNSELING PLLC
ABOUT
HUMBOLDT PARK COUNSELING, PLLC
Humboldt Park Counseling is a neighborhood counseling practice offering psychotherapy services to individuals, couples, adolescents, and families.
Our main office is located in the California Corridor, just South of Augusta, on California Ave. We have a second location at the Kimball Arts Center on the boarder of Logan Square and Humboldt Park.
We are in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO, Cigna, Aetna, Medicare, Meridian Medicaid, and Blue Cross Community Health Plan (BCCHP Medicaid). We are able to bill United Health Care as an out-of-network provider. We offer a limited number of sliding-scale appointments, to clients who cannot typically afford the cost of psychotherapy.
PSYCHOTHERAPY
For those new to psychotherapy, it all starts with connecting with a therapist and starting a conversation. This conversation is similar to the conversations you have with a trusted friend -- sharing who you are, what you care about, and what you struggle with. The difference is that in psychotherapy, you benefit from having a safe and supportive place to explore these subjects with a neutral party who will affirm your strengths and support you in areas where more growth is possible. The goal is therapy is often to have more awareness and acceptance of yourself, and be more confident and empowered with how you navigate choices in your life.
We are able to work with people who have a variety of difficulties including depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, relationship difficulties, codependency, anger management issues, substance abuse and dependency, eating disorders and body image issues, life transitions, workplace stress, perfectionism and obsessive compulsive tendencies. We acknowledge that these issues arise out of the context of your life experiences. Together we will explore these experiences and potential root causes for some of your tendencies. With greater self-awareness, some tendencies have the potential to transform, while others tendencies may benefit from self-acceptance, acknowledging them as part of the many characteristics that make up who you are.
MINDFULNESS-BASED APPROACHES
Mindfulness approaches have influenced the next wave of cognitive-behavior therapies and have been found to help people who suffer from repeated bouts of depression and chronic unhappiness. Mindfulness is not the same as meditation. Meditation is a specific practice and can increase the brain’s capacity to think mindfully. Mindfulness is a practice of taking an observant stance towards your thoughts and feelings -- from an observant stance we can form a new relationship with our patterns of thinking and have more flexibility with how we respond.
INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an evidence-based model that incorporates mindfulness practices with an emphasis on understanding Parts of ourselves that take on specific roles. Many of these specific roles are healthy, helpful, and aid us in navigating our lives.
This model acknowledges that we have three types of Parts that manifest in response to our life experiences: Managers, Firefighters, and Exiles. Managers protect us by taking proactive actions. For example, People-Pleasing Parts are a type of Manager that take action to please others as a way of preventing the painful experience of being rejected. Firefighters protect us by taking reactive actions to painful experiences -- like lashing out in anger, drinking too much, eating or drinking to soothe oneself. Both Managers and Firefighters are designed to protect Exiles -- the Parts of ourselves that hold deep pain, traumatic memories, shame, fear, loneliness.
There is an acknowledgment in this model that all Parts are well-intended and likely took on a burdensome role to help you navigate the challenges of life.
With IFS therapy, we have the opportunity to relieve Parts that have taken on an extreme or burdensome role, or to form a more positive relationship with Parts of ourselves that are working diligently on our behalf.
SKILLS-BASED PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychotherapy is not designed to eliminate all difficult feelings and emotions -- instead it is designed to help you feel your feelings more effectively. For example, someone who has a phobia of elevators may never step into an elevator without fear and anxiety, however psychotherapy can assist the client with tools to ride the elevator while tolerating the uncomfortable feelings that arise.
During the course of treatment, your therapist might work with you on specific skills and assign homework related to distress tolerance, acceptance, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, mindfulness, self-compassion, and interpersonal skills.
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EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION & REPROCESSING (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that assists with processing traumatic events. During an EMDR session, the client reviews emotionally disturbing events in small and tolerable amounts while simultaneously focusing on external stimuli. The external stimuli are often bilateral eye movements or sounds. EMDR sessions are more formulaic than a typical psychotherapy session. Given that EMDR fosters a sense of re-experienceing traumatic moments it is not recommended for clients who are actively in crisis. We recommend that these sessions are done in conjunction with other forms of psychotherapy.