About Rachel
Dr. Rachel Kinison greets readers with a calm, straightforward style. She has nearly 20 years of counseling experience and holds LCPC and LMHC credentials.
She lives in Illinois and blends practical skills with everyday language to help people manage stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and relationship and parenting concerns. She worked in community counseling, a hospital behavioral health unit, and adult probation programs. That background gave her experience with individual and group therapy and with people facing trauma and post-traumatic stress.
Background and approach
She says she often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy but mixes approaches to fit each person. Rachel has a doctorate in Pastoral Community Counseling and a master’s degree in Counseling. She also lives with mild cerebral palsy, dystonia, and migraine headaches, and manages those conditions while keeping an active life that includes cooking, travel, and time with her basset hound and beagle.
Those lived experiences shape how she listens and responds. In sessions she emphasizes concrete skills - relaxation practices, coping techniques, and small behavior changes that add up. She frames clients as problem solvers and offers direction like a compass, helping people try new ways of thinking and acting to improve mood and relationships.
Her work covers a wide range of concerns including trauma and abuse, addictions, anger, chronic pain and illness, midlife issues, and veteran or first responder issues. She offers practical tools and a flexible approach to fit each person’s needs.
How therapeutic approaches work online
Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT) centers on identifying and working with strong emotions in the moment. It helps people understand attachment-related feelings and improves how they express needs and connect with others. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful thinking and behavior. Narrative Therapy helps clients separate themselves from their problems by rewriting the stories they tell about difficult events and identities.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their goals and situation. That means trying techniques, checking what helps, and adjusting the plan together rather than sticking to a single method.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video calls let people use visual cues and role-play exercises. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging offer quick, written check-ins and are useful for brief updates or between-session support. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to keep working on skills from wherever a person is most comfortable.
Questions people ask
What concerns does she commonly address?
What is her overall therapy style?
How much clinical experience does the therapist have?
Which credentials and region apply to her practice?
Can someone meet with her if English is not their first language?
What formats are available for sessions?
How does pricing work for sessions?
How do I begin working with her?
What this counselor works with
Most often
Also listed
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family conflicts
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Illinois, Florida
- Languages
- English