About Kirsten
Kirsten Munson uses a practical, person-centered approach to help people facing stress, anxiety, grief, low self-esteem, and depression. She is an LCPC (Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor) practicing in Illinois and brings more than three decades of experience to sessions. Her style is down-to-earth and respectful, with a focus on what will help someone feel steadier day to day.
Kirsten adapts conversations and plans to each person's needs. She draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice unhelpful patterns and try new ways of responding.
Background and approach
She also uses Client-Centered and Emotionally-Focused approaches to build trust and deepen emotional understanding. Her work covers common life stresses and harder transitions. That includes coping with loss, managing mood disorders, and dealing with relationship challenges such as communication problems, infidelity, and blended family issues.
She also supports people navigating adoption and foster care concerns, chronic illness and pain, aging-related issues, and gender dysphoria. Kirsten has practical experience with trauma and abuse, domestic violence, and the complicated feelings that can follow family of origin wounds. She helps people address shame, guilt, jealousy, and the emotional impact of separation and divorce.
Her long career gives her a broad perspective on co-morbid challenges and midlife shifts. Sessions focus on clear, doable steps and honest conversation. Kirsten encourages clients to set realistic goals and try small changes between meetings.
People are invited to bring their real-life problems and leave with specific strategies to try.
Approaches that translate to online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and then choose actions that match their values. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and coping with major life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and trying new behaviors to shift mood and functioning; it often helps with depression, anxiety, and motivation. Client-Centered Therapy centers the person's experience and uses empathic listening to build trust and self-understanding, which supports work on self-esteem and relationship concerns.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about their goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. That collaborative process guides which techniques are emphasized, and adjustments are made over time as needs change.
Online sessions can offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when a fuller interaction is helpful. Phone sessions work well for lower bandwidth or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for quick check-ins, brief coaching, or when fitting support into a busy day. These options make it easier to maintain regular contact and carry therapeutic tools into everyday life.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Blended family issues
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 33 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English