About Debbie
Debbie Chirikos is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 40 years of experience who focuses on helping people facing stress, anxiety, ADHD, depression, grief, relationship strain, and parenting challenges. She brings steady curiosity and a long career to guide people through painful or self-defeating patterns. Debbie aims to be present and engaged in sessions so clients feel heard and understood.
Debbie trained in clinical social work at universities in Colorado and holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Clinical Social Work.
Background and approach
She has practiced in several U.S. states as well as in Hawaii and Canada. Those years in diverse settings shaped a flexible, practical approach that adapts to each person’s needs. Her style blends attachment-based work, client-centered listening, and cognitive behavioral ideas.
She uses mindfulness and motivational interviewing to help people notice patterns, strengthen coping skills, and set manageable goals. Sessions tend to be conversational and focused on real, daily changes clients can try between meetings. Debbie often works with people who are willing to reflect and do the hard work of change.
She is patient with repeated setbacks and uses straightforward feedback mixed with humor when it helps. Many clients look to her for steady support while they rebuild confidence and calm. She also offers help for adoption and foster care issues, blended family concerns, caregiver stress, attachment questions, and trauma-related struggles.
Debbie emphasizes partnership in therapy - walking alongside people as they reclaim strengths and solve persistent problems.
How her approaches work in online therapy
Attachment-based work focuses on how relationships shape feelings and behavior. Online sessions give space to talk about trust, closeness, and family patterns while practicing new ways of relating. Client-centered therapy centers on listening without judgment and supporting the person’s own choices; that tone translates well to video, phone, chat, or messaging so clients set the pace and focus.Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. She collaborates with each person to choose methods that fit their goals, daily life, and comfort level. Together they try different tools and adjust the plan as progress and setbacks show up.
Online formats offer practical benefits for busy lives. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when seeing expressions matters. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier when a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging let people share thoughts between sessions and get brief support without scheduling a full call. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent and woven into everyday routines.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 40 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
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