About Tera
Tera Wilkes is a licensed clinician practicing in Illinois. She holds an IL LCPC and has seven years of clinical experience. She focuses on helping people who are facing mood and stress-related concerns.
Her work often addresses depression, bipolar symptoms, anxiety, and the fallout from trauma and abuse. She creates a straightforward, respectful space where people can talk about what matters most to them. Conversations are nonjudgmental and grounded in the client’s own goals.
Background and approach
Tera encourages small steps and practical strategies that fit everyday life. Her approach combines Client-Centered Therapy with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. That means sessions start with what the person brings and then move to skills and ways of thinking that reduce distress.
Clients can expect both listening and collaborative problem solving. Tera also supports people dealing with relationship strain, intimacy concerns, parenting stress, grief, career shifts, and compassion fatigue. She brings experience with LGBT issues, ADHD, panic and mood disorders, and first responder stress among other focuses.
Treatment plans are tailored to the individual and can include coaching-style work when helpful. Most sessions emphasize clear goals and practical tools. Progress is tracked by what the client notices day to day.
The overall aim is to build coping skills, increase emotional understanding, and make daily life feel more manageable.
How these approaches work online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on understanding the person’s experience and offering empathic support. The therapist reflects concerns, listens closely, and helps the client set their own goals. This approach is useful when someone needs a steady, accepting space to talk about identity, grief, or relationship strain.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions link together. Sessions teach practical tools to change unhelpful thinking and to build coping habits for anxiety, depression, panic, and mood swings. CBT often includes exercises to try between meetings so progress carries into daily life.
Finding the right approach is collaborative. The therapist will start by asking about your goals, symptoms, and preferences, then suggest a plan that blends listening with skills work. Together you can adjust the focus as needs change so therapy stays useful and relevant.
Online sessions offer flexibility for busy schedules and different needs. Video calls let you use face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in fits a break at work. Live chat and text-based messaging allow frequent short exchanges, quick reflections, and ongoing coaching-style support between longer sessions.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- LGBT
- Trauma and abuse
- Bipolar disorder
Also listed
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- First responder issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Stress, Anxiety
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English