Hannah Courtney, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

Often--such as in the case of the chronic people-pleasers, the hustling workaholics, the caretakers, the perpetual survivalists--we lose a sense of who we are, or perhaps never got to focus on ourselves long enough to know in the first place. Perhaps you learned that for YOU to be okay, you must prioritize the needs of others; you cannot be okay if they are not okay, and they are not okay unless you regulate them and keep them regulated. Maybe it feels like your self-worth is directly tied to how successful you are, how much you self-sacrifice and push yourself, how 'strong' you appear. Having meaningful connections might seem only possible through a filtered version of you: one that isn't a burden, that is what others want you to be; where all the parts of you deemed 'bad' throughout your life have been shunned away to the deepest depths where they lie buried beneath guilt and shame.

I am an LCPC in IL with 6+ years of experience and I earned my MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Palo Alto University. I've worked in a variety of settings, including hospitals, residential rehabilitation, transitional housing, IOP and PHP groups, and outpatient with individuals, couples, and families. I've worked with children, adolescents, adults, and seniors. My most passionate areas of practice are attachment issues, personality disorders, neurodivergence, mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, women's issues, multicultural and marginalized populations, dissociative disorders, body image and self-esteem, LGBTQIA+, and gender identity.

I believe that the path to healing involves self-actualization, living in alignment with ones core values and desires, experiencing safety and secure attachment, and falling in love with yourself and the world you inhabit. This path entails developing healthy and productive coping mechanisms, such as distress tolerance; radical acceptance; cognitive challenging; creative expression; emotional and nervous system regulation; mindfulness; grounding; and reconnection with the self through mind-body connection and self-care. It also entails trauma processing and self-exploration. I have an eclectic approach to therapy, which means that I tailor treatment to the individual by incorporating techniques from multiple, evidence-based modalities rather than adhering to a single school of thought. I work from a trauma-informed lens, and the study and treatment of trauma is the core from which all my other practice stems. And while this absolutely includes overt physical, sexual, and emotional trauma, this also extends to the distorted ways in which we may have developed due to what was modeled for us, the unspoken family norms and rules we grow up with, the undiagnosed and untreated neurodivergence, the households with frequent high-distress, the intergenerational traumas passed down, the intersectionality of systemic traumas, and the development of insecure attachments. These traumas can be more difficult to recognize, especially because often these factors are normalized to us and many caregivers are genuinely loving, caring, trying their best, and unaware of their own trauma wounds that they still carry. I am extremely passionate about the effects of trauma on mental and physical health as well as our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. I am passionate about neuroscience, attachment theory, human development, and mind-body connection. Yes, I am the walking-trope-of-a-therapist that highly values psychodynamic work. I don't believe in viewing your childhood, caregiver attachments, and past relationships through the lens of blaming everything on someone else or being treated as if you are a helpless victim to be pitied. I don't think any of this exploration we embark on should involve concepts like 'blame' and 'fault'. That is all-or-nothing thinking, a distorted thinking trap that we often fall into, and the goal is to aim for balanced, middle-ground thinking. Just as physical pain alerts us to bodily harm and damage, emotional pain is how our mind calls attention to something that is harmful and damaging around us or within us. We address the call by setting boundaries, curating a safe and supportive environment (to the extent possible for you), and allowing the inner messages to develop into a voice of assertive communication, self-advocacy, and self-love. Try as we might, we cannot control anything but our own selves and we cannot single-handedly change our shared reality. My approach focuses on developing the self so that you are better equipped to navigate and cope with those uncontrollable things around you. Because the other things don't necessarily change, but you will. I will guide you through your journey of facing shame and guilt; of understanding trauma wounds and the reactions they drive; of recognizing the critical inner voice, distorted thinking, and negative self-regard embedded in your psyche and driving you. We'll learn to sit with unpleasant emotions and process painful experiences, and we'll develop coping skills to ensure you have the capacity to safely do so. Along the way, you will discover a sense of self, empowerment, self-trust, and the most alive, whole, and authentic YOU that has been waiting to emerge.