About Denise
Denise McNicholas is a licensed clinical professional counselor in Illinois. She brings five years of counseling experience and focuses on helping people with relationship concerns, self-esteem, career issues, and coaching needs. She views each person as the expert on their own life and looks for strengths to build on.
Sessions tend to be collaborative and practical. Denise aims to make the first steps feel manageable for someone who is unsure what comes next.
How Denise works
Her work also addresses challenges tied to chronic pain, illness, and disability. She supports people processing forgiveness, life purpose, and self-love. Traumatic brain injury and women's issues are part of her additional focus areas.
Denise uses several approaches to guide conversations and skill building. She draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people clarify values and take meaningful action. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used to identify unhelpful thoughts and try new patterns.
She also incorporates Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills and motivational interviewing strategies when helpful. Solution-Focused Therapy is used to set short-term goals and track progress. The result is a straightforward, goal-oriented process that aims to leave people with practical tools they can use between sessions.
Denise lists 5 ways of working on the entry:
What Denise works with
The areas below are the ones Denise selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
Also listed
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Forgiveness
- Life purpose
- Self-love
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
Training and background
| Register | LCPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 5 |
| 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 these approaches work online
Denise uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people notice what matters to them and take steps that match those values. ACT focuses on actions and choices rather than trying to eliminate every uncomfortable feeling. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used to spot unhelpful thoughts and test new ways of thinking and behaving to reduce distress and improve daily function.Choosing an approach is a team effort. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. Over a few sessions they will adjust methods so the work fits the person's needs and pace.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to increase flexibility. Video allows face-to-face conversation for skill practice, phone can be a good low-bandwidth option, live chat offers quick check-ins, and messaging is useful for brief updates or ongoing support between scheduled meetings. These formats make it easier to fit counseling into a busy life and to carry skills into everyday routines.
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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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