Cornerstone Counseling Center of Chicago

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United States
Chicago, IL
Cornerstone Counseling Center of Chicago

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We are a not-for-profit (501(c)3) mental health agency providing exceptional counseling and therapy

08/31/2026

Scroll through social media for five minutes, and you’ll find no shortage of advice on how to fix your mental health. Journaling prompts. Breathwork routines. Dopamine detoxes. The self-help industry has a wide reach, and while it can be genuinely helpful, it can also become a less effective replacement for needed professional mental health care.

Mindfulness, exercise, journaling, and better sleep are all good ideas and truly beneficial practices. And when life feels overwhelming but you’re basically okay, healthy habits like these can take the edge off. But they work at the level of wellness maintenance. They don’t rewire entrenched thought patterns, process unresolved trauma, or treat a diagnosable mental health condition.

The risk isn’t that self-help is useless. It’s that it can feel productive enough to delay getting real help, sometimes for years.

If mindfulness was supposed to fix your anxiety and it didn’t, something must be wrong with you, right? No. It means the issue was clinical, not behavioral. You weren’t doing self-help wrong. You were using the wrong tool for the job. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that more than one in five US adults live with a mental illness in any given year. For these people, self-help content can fill the treatment gap in ways that feel productive but delay real care.

Coping skills are a starting point, not a finish line. If you’ve been struggling for weeks, months, or years, and the podcasts and journals and breathing exercises haven’t gotten you where you need to be, that’s not a reflection of your effort or your worth. It may simply mean it’s time to bring in professional support built for what you’re actually dealing with.

Reach out today and take the first step.

08/24/2026

We provide effective and evidence-based treatment to children and adolescents. We believe that family is an integral part of the treatment process. Parents and caregivers often play a vital supportive role in enhancing social/emotional development while reducing the risk of developmental decline/regression in skills obtained in the treatment process.

Individual and Family Therapy
We provide evidence-based therapy for children, adolescents, and families for a variety of behavioral, social, and emotional struggles.

We provide several therapies, including
➡️ Play Therapy
➡️ Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
➡️Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
➡️ Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma
➡️ Family Therapy
➡️ Narrative Therapy
➡️ Expressive Therapy

Call us at (773) 572-9578 or visit our website to inquire about making an appointment.

08/19/2026

Every couple embarks on their marriage journey with good intentions and differences. Our counseling provides an opportunity to explore various facets of the relationship, including many that couples may not yet grasp as important.

Pre-marriage counseling lays out skills needed to nurture a relationship; it helps couples identify strengths and potential areas for growth and explores healthy conflict resolution as well as other skills that contribute to long-term relationship success.

Call us at (773) 572-9578 or visit our website to inquire about making an appointment.

08/17/2026

Emotional loneliness rarely has a single cause. More often, it’s the result of several overlapping factors that quietly erode your sense of belonging. Some of the most common sources of social disconnection include:

➡ Surface-level relationships: When most of your interactions stay light (such as small talk, logistics, and social performance), you’re not getting the kind of vulnerability and depth that actually nourishes connection.

➡ Feeling misunderstood: If the people around you don’t “get” who you really are, closeness becomes difficult to sustain, even with genuine effort on both sides.

➡ Social media’s highlight reel effect: Studies show a direct link between social media use and increased feelings of loneliness. This isn’t to say that genuine connection is impossible online. However, scrolling through curated snapshots of other people’s lives can quietly convince you that everyone else is more connected, more fulfilled, and more loved than you are. Passive social consumption often tends to replace the real thing rather than supplement it.

➡ Masking emotions: Many people learn early that feelings like anger, sadness, and need aren’t welcome, then spend years performing okayness instead of experiencing actual intimacy.

➡ Life transitions: A new city, a new job, the end of a relationship, or even a major success can quietly isolate you from people who once felt close.

➡ Social anxiety and depression: Both conditions can make social situations feel exhausting, hollow, or threatening — even when the people present care about you deeply.

➡ Loneliness is now widely considered a serious public health concern in the US, with effects on both mental and physical health. This isn’t a character flaw or a minor mood. It’s something worth taking seriously.

You don’t have to keep feeling invisible. Help is available — and closer than you think.

08/13/2026

Relationships of all types can be hard. We can often address some of the difficulties in the relationship ourselves, but there are times when we need the help of a licensed professional. Look at it from the standpoint of maintaining your house, car or health. There are some things we can do the maintenance ourselves, but we need to know when to call in a professional for lasting repair.

A Couple might seek therapy for conflict, failed communication, betrayal (of all types), intimacy challenges, changes in lifestyle or new stressors, and/or family of origin concerns. These issues can arise in any phase or type of a relationship.

Also, couples don’t only come to therapy when things are rocky, but they also come when things are going along well. We call these times check-ins. During those check-in sessions, we usually address “possible” issues, like time management, lifestyle balance and future planning that could cause stress.

Our therapists have been trained to use evidence-based approaches such as Gottman, Emotion- Focused Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Call (773) 572-9578 or visit our website to inquire about making an appointment.

08/11/2026

Wondering if therapy is for you? If you are struggling with life challenges, a major life change, the end of a relationship, a loss of a job, the death of a loved one, a health crisis or maybe you feel unsettled or lost. And sometimes you may feel exhausted and yet you cannot pinpoint why but realize that something just isn’t right. Consider taking the first step with individual therapy.

We offer you a safe place to discuss any variety of issues. A place where you can begin to address difficult emotions and experiences without any judgement from others. As your therapist, we will listen with empathy and understanding, and offer strategies for helping you navigate your way to reach your goals.

Therapy can be a great investment for today and your future.

06/18/2026

Honored to join Say More with Mary Dixon & Patrick Smith on WBEZ this morning to talk about a topic that resonates with so many of us: Can you slow down for the summer?

Summer often arrives with the promise of rest, balance, and more time for ourselves and our families. Yet, for many people, especially working parents, it can feel just as busy, stressful, and overwhelming as the rest of the year.

During our conversation, we discussed work-life balance, the pressure to stay productive, and why slowing down is often harder than it sounds. One of the key ideas we explored is that work-life balance isn’t about achieving a perfect 50-50 split. It’s about creating enough time, energy, and emotional space for the things that matter most.

A few reminders as we move into the summer season:
·      Busyness is not the same as productivity.
·      Rest is not a reward, it is a human need.
·      Life happens in seasons, and priorities naturally shift.
·      Sometimes the challenge isn’t finding time to slow down, it’s giving ourselves permission to do so.

Thank you to WBEZ, Mary Dixon, and Patrick Smith for inviting me to join the conversation.

What does slowing down look like for you this summer?

Link in bio

06/13/2026

Lovely afternoon celebrating the end of the (school) year with the team.

03/25/2026

Prioritizing yourself is a key aspect of bettering your mental health. Prioritization includes setting boundaries, creating a schedule, and deciding what you put your energy towards. To learn more about using prioritization to protect your mental health, go check out our most recent article in our bio!

12/05/2025

Here’s to another Self-care Friday!

This week, we’re exploring mindfulness as a way to create space in your day—space to breathe, to notice, and to reconnect with yourself. Grounding practices can support emotional balance and clarity, which are beneficial for mental health. Try incorporating mindfulness into your routine next week!

Address

1111 N Wells Street Suite 400
Chicago, IL
60610

Telephone

+13125738860

Website

https://chicagocounseling.org/

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