About Debbie
Debbie Chirikos brings 40 years of clinical social work experience to her counseling. She has dedicated her career to helping people who are ready to examine themselves and make lasting changes. Debbie holds a Master of Social Work and uses a warm, direct style that mixes listening with practical feedback.
She focuses on stress, anxiety, depression, and relationship concerns. She also helps people navigating parenting pressures, grief, trauma and abuse, sleep problems, career shifts, and compassion fatigue.
How Debbie works
Additional areas include adoption and foster care, attachment issues, blended family concerns, caregiver stress, and codependency. Debbie follows approaches that include attachment-based work, client-centered methods, cognitive behavioral techniques, mindfulness practices, and motivational interviewing. Sessions often combine understanding personal patterns with simple skills to reduce distress and build new habits.
She aims to keep interventions relevant to each person's life. Her style is attentive and straightforward. She values nonjudgmental feedback and uses humor when it helps.
Debbie describes herself as patient with people who repeat self-defeating behaviors and engaged with those willing to do hard work. Clients who prefer a collaborative partner will find her focused on practical outcomes. She believes people already have the seeds of their own solutions and that a supportive guide can help those seeds grow.
Debbie practices in Illinois as an LCSW.
Debbie lists 7 ways of working on the entry:
What Debbie works with
The areas below are the ones Debbie selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- 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
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 40 |
| 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 attachment work and CBT translate to online sessions
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on patterns in close relationships and how early bonds shape current reactions. In online sessions this work uses conversation to notice recurring dynamics and to practice new ways of relating and responding. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps people identify unhelpful thoughts and habits and replace them with more useful actions. CBT sessions include goal setting, straightforward skill practice, and checking results between meetings.The right approach often becomes clear through short-term collaboration. The therapist will ask about goals, daily patterns, and what has helped or hindered change. Together they will try methods, adjust based on feedback, and choose the tools that fit the client’s needs and comfort level.
Online formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives. Video calls offer near face-to-face interaction for in-depth work. Phone sessions can be simpler when less bandwidth or no camera is preferred. Live chat and text messaging allow brief check-ins, interim coaching, or steady support between sessions. These options give flexibility so people can use the methods that help them engage and progress.
Start online instead of waiting
Our partner service asks a few questions about what you are looking for and matches you with a therapist for sessions from home.
Book with DebbieWe will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.
Common questions
What concerns does she address?
What is her therapy style like?
How much experience does she have?
What credentials and location are on file?
Which languages are supported and can she work internationally?
What session formats does she offer?
How are costs handled?
How do I get started with therapy?
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.
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you. Entries are not assessed or endorsed by this directory.
Other entries for stress, anxiety
Supportive LCSW helping people build strength and clarity
Practical, trauma-aware therapy for everyday life
Practical, relational therapy for life transitions