About Richard
Richard Heller practices using clear, practical therapy that helps people manage stress, anxiety, grief, and life transitions. He draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and related approaches to help people spot unhelpful thoughts and try new behaviors. Richard works from Illinois and brings 20 years of counseling experience to his sessions.
He emphasizes short-term skills people can use between meetings. Sessions focus on realistic steps, like changing patterns of thinking, building routines, and practicing new ways to communicate.
Background and approach
The goal is to make daily life feel more manageable and less overwhelming. Richard also pays attention to personal history and emotional parts that show up in relationships and self-image. He uses Client-Centered methods to listen and understand what matters most to each person.
Internal Family Systems ideas are woven in when exploring conflicting inner feelings or roles. Over two decades he has helped people cope with depression, trauma, grief, and caregiving stress. He also supports those dealing with career strain, eating concerns, ADHD, anger, and issues around aging or hospice matters.
His background includes long experience in pastoral care and chaplaincy, which informs a caring, respectful style. Sessions are practical and collaborative. Richard treats each person with sensitivity and compassion while working together to set achievable goals.
He encourages straightforward conversation and steady progress toward clearer thinking and more effective coping.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online work
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely and making the session about what matters most to the person. In online sessions this means the therapist follows the client’s lead, reflects concerns, and helps people find what feels most important to address. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches practical tools to change thinking and behavior. Online CBT often uses short exercises, homework, and real-life experiments that people can try between sessions to handle anxiety, depression, or stress.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with the client about problems, goals, and preferences, and then test techniques to see what helps. Adjustments are made over time so the work fits the person’s life and pace.
Online sessions offer flexibility and practical benefits. Video calls let people work face-to-face when that feels useful. Phone sessions can be lower bandwidth and easier when a quick check-in is needed. Live chat or text-based messaging can support brief updates, coaching-style check-ins, or ongoing encouragement between longer sessions. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy schedule and keep progress moving forward.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English