- 40 years experience
- Focus on sleep
- Warm and direct
About Debbie
Debbie Chirikos is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 40 years of counseling experience. She focuses on helping people reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep and rest, and move past painful patterns. Her style is direct, warm, and practical, and she stays fully engaged in sessions to help clients make real changes.
Debbie uses straightforward conversation and gentle challenge to help people see what keeps them stuck. She encourages clients to try new ways of coping and to notice small shifts that build momentum over time. Humor is sometimes part of the work when it helps people let go and breathe.
She trained in Colorado and has worked in several states, as well as Hawaii and Canada. Her long practice has led her to value curiosity and ongoing learning, so she keeps her skills current as needs and social contexts change. That experience informs how she approaches complex concerns like trauma, grief, and compassion fatigue.
Clients often bring relationship and family stress, parenting challenges, blended family issues, or worries about attachment and adoption. She also helps people dealing with career stress, ADHD-related struggles, and post-traumatic stress. Sessions aim to reduce shame and guilt and to build clearer communication and healthier behavior patterns.
Debbie asks for honest effort from clients who want to look at themselves and make change. She offers steady support, patient guidance, and practical tools to help people find more calm, better sleep, and steadily increased confidence.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Debbie uses client-centered work and cognitive behavioral techniques to shape online conversations. Client-centered therapy focuses on listening, understanding, and reflecting what matters to the person seeking help. It helps people feel heard and develop their own solutions. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) breaks problems into thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and offers testing and practice to shift unhelpful patterns; it is useful for anxiety, sleep troubles, and mood changes.Finding the right fit is a collaborative process. She will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what feels manageable, and then shape sessions around those needs. The therapist and client decide together which approaches to prioritize and when to try practical tools or reflective conversation.
Confirm current session options before booking so you know the available delivery formats. Online work can make it easier to fit appointments into a busy week, reduce travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when a full session feels like too much. It can also make it simpler to continue therapy through life transitions while keeping the focus on improving sleep, reducing stress, and building steady routines.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
40+ years
Credentials
Illinois
Languages
English
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does this therapist help with?
She helps people with stress, anxiety, sleep and rest problems, depression, relationship and family concerns, trauma and grief, career stress, ADHD-related struggles, and compassion fatigue.
How would you describe the therapy style and approach?
Her style is client-centered and practical. She combines attachment-based ideas, cognitive behavioral steps, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing to support change.
What is her professional background and experience?
She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 40 years of clinical practice, including work in multiple U.S. states, Hawaii, and Canada.
Where is the therapist located and what credential does she hold?
She is based in Illinois and holds an Illinois Licensed Clinical Social Worker credential, listed as LCSW.
Which languages are sessions offered in?
Sessions are offered in English.
Can people outside the U.S. work with her?
International clients are not currently accepted.
How are costs and payment handled?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin working with this therapist?
Click the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and then schedule sessions according to therapist availability.