About Alisa
Alisa Cates, LCPC offers a warm, person-centered approach that starts with listening. She focuses on what matters to each person and helps them find practical steps forward. Many clients come for help with anxiety, depression, stress, parenting concerns, grief, or relationship and family challenges.
Alisa has been licensed in Illinois since 2013 and brings 13 years of practice across community mental health, inpatient hospitalization, intensive outpatient programs, corrections, and independent practice.
How Alisa works
That variety means she has worked with mood disorders, bipolar mood concerns, addictions, and life transitions in many settings. She also supports people facing career decisions, compassion fatigue, postpartum challenges, and aging or geriatric issues. Her sessions are straightforward and focused on the person in front of her.
Alisa draws on Client-Centered Therapy to create a respectful space. She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to help identify thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going. Emotionally-Focused Therapy ideas guide work on attachment and stronger emotional connections.
She also uses Motivational Interviewing when people want help making changes and Narrative Therapy to make sense of difficult stories. Together these approaches let her match practical tools to each client's goals. Work may include skill practice, rethinking unhelpful patterns, or exploring deeper emotional meaning.
Alisa offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different needs. To begin, a person completes a short matching questionnaire and schedules based on the therapist's availability.
Alisa lists 7 ways of working on the entry:
What Alisa works with
The areas below are the ones Alisa selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Parenting issues
- Anger management
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LCPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 13 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Illinois |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How therapy approaches translate to online care
Client-Centered Therapy centers the person's experience and priorities. In online sessions this means the therapist listens carefully and shapes sessions around what matters most to the individual, helping them set goals and decide the pace of work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and practicing new skills; used online, CBT often involves brief exercises, worksheets, and homework that can be reviewed during video calls or text check-ins.Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that fit their goals, preferences, and life demands. That might mean leaning into emotionally-focused work for relationship concerns, using motivational interviewing to support change, or trying narrative exercises to reframe difficult stories. The plan can be adjusted as progress is made.
Online formats offer practical flexibility. Video calls work well for deeper conversation and exercises that benefit from face-to-face interaction. Phone sessions require less bandwidth and can fit into a work break. Live chat and text-based messaging make short check-ins and quick skill practice easier between sessions. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives while using the chosen therapeutic approaches.
Start online instead of waiting
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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