About Denise
Denise McNicholas is a licensed counselor in Illinois who brings five years of clinical experience to her practice. She focuses on relationship concerns, self-esteem, career questions, and coaching for professionals. Denise frames the client as the expert in their own life and encourages small, manageable steps forward.
She uses practical conversations to build confidence and motivation. Sessions often include goal-setting, problem-solving, and strategies to change unhelpful thinking. Denise also supports people dealing with chronic pain, illness, or disability by attending to how those issues affect daily goals and self-worth.
Background and approach
Forgiveness, life purpose, and self-love are frequent themes in her work. She helps clients clarify values and find ways to live that reflect those values. Traumatic brain injury and women's issues are additional areas she addresses with attention to individual needs.
Denise draws from several approaches to shape each plan of care. That includes Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people accept tough feelings while committing to meaningful action. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used to shift unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
Solution-Focused techniques guide quick, practical steps toward change. Her style is collaborative and down-to-earth. She aims to make therapy understandable and useful on a day-to-day level.
New clients are guided through a clear start-up process so they can begin working on the issues that matter to them.
How evidence-based approaches work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and then take actions that match their personal values. It can be useful when someone feels blocked by worry, sadness, or chronic health challenges. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying and shifting unhelpful thoughts and behaviors through practical exercises and skill practice, which can help with low mood, anxiety, and confidence struggles.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with clients to pick methods that suit their needs, goals, and day-to-day life. That may mean trying a few techniques and adjusting as progress is made so the plan stays relevant and doable.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different routines. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation, phone calls work when bandwidth or travel are a concern, live chat offers shorter check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent while balancing work, family, and health demands.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
Also listed
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Forgiveness
- Life purpose
- Self-love
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 5 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English