About William
William Swieringa is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with 39 years of clinical practice based in Illinois. He has built a career helping people sort through stress, anxiety, addictions, mood disorders, and a wide range of life challenges by combining compassionate support with structured interventions.
Background and approach
Swieringa applies his training to concerns such as grief, trauma and abuse, relationship and intimacy-related issues, career struggles, and difficulties with sleeping and eating. His work draws on several evidence-based methods including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Existential Therapy, Mindfulness Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing to tailor care to each person's situation.
He also addresses more specialized issues like ADHD, bipolar disorder, codependency, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and adjustment after separation or loss. William frames therapy as a collaborative process, aiming to help clients build coping skills, clarify values, and move toward meaningful change while honoring each individual’s experience.
Therapeutic Approaches and Online Access
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify their values and take actions consistent with those values while learning to live with difficult thoughts and feelings. It can be useful for stress, anxiety, and life transitions where a focus on meaning and commitment supports progress. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors, making it practical for anxiety, depression, addictions, and sleep or eating-related concerns.
Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic work. The therapist collaborates with each client to determine which methods best match their goals, preferences, and the problems they bring, adjusting techniques over time as needed. This collaborative stance helps tailor sessions to what is most helpful for the individual.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life or to connect from another location. Licensed professionals can use these formats to deliver ACT and CBT strategies, guide mindfulness practices, and provide ongoing motivational support in ways that suit personal routines and communication preferences.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 39 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English