About April
April Balzhiser is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) practicing in Illinois. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, relationship and family concerns, trauma and abuse, grief, addictions, and issues around intimacy and self-esteem. Her work also covers bipolar mood concerns, coping with life changes, and compassion fatigue.
She aims for clear, direct conversations that make sense to busy parents and adults. April draws on 18 years of experience in social services and mental health settings.
Background and approach
That background includes work with domestic violence, sexual assault, child welfare and foster care, alternative schooling, and family disruption. She has supported people through chronic illness, caregiving strain, blended family challenges, attachment questions, and adoption or abandonment-related concerns. Her style is straightforward and person-focused.
She meets people where they are and sets goals together. Sessions tend to be practical and skills-based, with room to talk about feelings and history when that helps move things forward.
Therapeutic methods she uses include client-centered work that follows the person's pacing, cognitive behavioral techniques to change unhelpful patterns, dialectical behavior strategies for emotional regulation, mindfulness practices to reduce reactivity, and motivational interviewing to build commitment to change. April adapts these tools to each person's needs. People who come to her can expect a calm, steady approach and concrete coping strategies.
She prioritizes building trust quickly so families and individuals can address immediate problems and plan longer-term changes.
Approaches that translate well to online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and following the person's pace. It helps when someone needs to feel heard and decide what change looks like for them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at thoughts and behaviors and teaches specific skills to reduce anxiety, depression, or unhelpful patterns. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, teaches practical tools for managing intense emotions and improving relationships.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. April will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn't worked before. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made.
Online sessions offer flexibility in how people connect. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction for skill practice and emotional work. Phone sessions are a good option when video would be difficult or bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging can be used for shorter check-ins, coaching-style support, or managing things between scheduled sessions. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy family schedules and different lifestyles.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 18 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English