About Debra
Debra Schwarze brings three decades of counseling experience to work with people facing stress, anxiety, grief, depression, coping with life changes, compassion fatigue, relationship and family concerns, trauma and abuse, sleep difficulties, self-esteem struggles, career questions, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and related issues such as cancer, caregiver stress, divorce, and end-of-life concerns.
Background and approach
She is a licensed counselor with credentials as LCPC and LPC, practicing in Illinois while drawing on a long history across community mental health, schools, faith-based settings, health systems, and independent practice. Her approach blends client-centered listening with evidence-based methods including cognitive behavioral techniques, EMDR for trauma processing, and mindfulness practices.
Debra also integrates expressive art-making when clients are open to it, using creative processes to explore feelings that can be hard to put into words. She aims to create a supportive space where clients can articulate goals, address obstacles, and work toward meaningful change.
Debra holds master’s-level training in counseling and art therapy and offers a collaborative therapeutic relationship focused on helping each person identify practical coping strategies and pathways to improved emotional wellbeing.
Approaches for Online Healing and Practical Support
Client-centered therapy focuses on creating an accepting therapeutic relationship where the client’s experience guides the work; this approach helps people explore feelings, identify goals, and feel heard while shaping treatment around their priorities. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) targets unhelpful thoughts and behaviors with structured strategies and skill-building exercises, making it useful for anxiety, depression, panic, and many daily coping challenges. EMDR is a trauma-focused method that helps process distressing memories through guided bilateral stimulation and can support recovery from traumatic events when appropriate and agreed upon by the client.
Finding the right approach is part of therapy, and the therapist will collaborate with clients to determine which combination of methods best matches their needs, goals, and comfort level. Decisions about using mindfulness, CBT techniques, EMDR, or expressive art elements are made together, with adjustments over time as progress and preferences become clear.
Online therapy with video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging offers flexibility for scheduling and lets clients access care from home or work. These formats can make it easier to fit sessions into busy lives, maintain continuity when travel or health issues arise, and choose the communication style that feels most comfortable while working with licensed professionals and therapists.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- Illinois, Wisconsin
- Languages
- English