About Austa
Austa Murray is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 22 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship concerns. She works with adults facing parenting strain, grief, identity questions, and challenges like ADHD or compassion fatigue. Austa aims to meet clients where they are and move at a comfortable pace.
Her approach is warm and nonjudgmental. Sessions focus on building a trusting connection and practical skills for everyday life.
How Austa works
She blends listening and teaching so people can better understand their patterns and try new ways of coping. Austa uses attachment-based ideas to look at how early relationships shape current reactions. She also draws on client-centered methods that prioritize the person's goals and pace.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) techniques are added when skills training and behavior change are helpful. She brings experience from individual, group, and family work in many mental health settings. That background informs how she helps people facing complicated issues like abuse, dissociation, or co-morbid conditions.
Austa pays attention to development and trauma when making a plan. In sessions she focuses on strengths, insight, and concrete tools. Together with each person she crafts a clear plan tailored to their needs.
Austa aims to help people feel more steady, connected, and able to handle life changes.
Austa lists 9 ways of working on the entry:
What Austa works with
The areas below are the ones Austa selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 22 |
| 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
Austa uses attachment-based therapy to look at how early connections shape current reactions and relationships; this helps when intimacy, trust, abandonment, or attachment issues are a concern. Client-centered therapy is also a foundation - sessions are driven by the person's goals and pace, with the therapist following and reflecting rather than directing.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) provides clear tools to change unhelpful thought and behavior patterns, useful for anxiety, depression, and mood-related concerns. Together the therapist and client can try techniques, track responses, and adjust the approach based on what works and what feels manageable.
Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit best given their goals and preferences. That might mean focusing on skills practice one week and attachment exploration the next.
Online therapy options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls let people use body language and a face-to-face feel, phone sessions are helpful when bandwidth is limited or hands-free check-ins are needed, and live chat or text is useful for brief check-ins, skill reminders, or when writing feels easier. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and keep consistent progress.
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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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