About Benita
Benita Whitfield offers care for people managing stress, anxiety, relationship challenges, parenting concerns, anger, and self-esteem difficulties. With 26 years working as a licensed social worker, she emphasizes responsive, individualized support that helps clients sort through patterns, cope with emotional intensity, and strengthen communication skills.
Background and approach
Her style blends client-centered listening with evidence-informed methods to address issues such as attachment wounds, adoption and foster care concerns, caregiver stress, body image, chronic illness or pain, and co-morbid conditions. She integrates techniques from Attachment-Based Therapy, Emotionally-Focused Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and mindfulness to help people develop practical coping tools and deeper self-understanding.
Based in Illinois and credentialed as both an LCSW and LICSW, she brings a compassionate, culturally attentive stance to clinical work. Benita aims to create a collaborative space where clients can explore difficult emotions, experiment with new behavioral strategies, and build resilience over time.
Therapeutic Approaches and Accessible Online Care
Benita often draws on Attachment-Based Therapy to explore how early relational patterns shape current feelings and behaviors, helping clients address trust, closeness, and attachment wounds. She also uses Emotionally-Focused Therapy to identify and transform difficult interaction cycles, which can be especially useful for improving communication and emotional connection. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills are incorporated when clients need concrete tools for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Benita works with each person to identify their needs, preferences, and goals, then tailors methods so therapy feels relevant and manageable. Together the client and therapist track progress and adjust strategies as necessary to find the best fit.
Online therapy options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, offering flexibility for different lifestyles and schedules. These formats allow licensed professionals to provide consistent care without requiring travel, making it easier to maintain continuity during busy or transitional periods.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of concerns does Benita address?
What is her therapeutic approach like?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she located?
Which languages are available for sessions and can international clients participate?
What session formats are offered for therapy?
How are fees and subscriptions handled?
How does someone begin working with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Parenting issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 26 years
- Licensed
- Massachusetts, Illinois
- Languages
- English