About Joan
Joan French is a licensed clinical professional counselor (LCPC) practicing in Illinois. She focuses on helping people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, relationship struggles, trauma and abuse, grief, low self-esteem, sleep problems, career concerns, and major life changes. Joan also supports people navigating identity questions, including gender dysphoria and LGBT issues.
Joan aims to build a trusting space where clients feel heard and valued. She keeps sessions nonjudgmental and encourages open sharing, including hard topics that feel unspeakable.
How Joan works
She brings a warm, patient manner and sometimes uses gentle humor when it fits. With 17 years of experience, Joan blends several therapeutic methods to match each person’s needs. She commonly draws on cognitive behavioral approaches, emotion-focused techniques, dialectical behavior skills, acceptance and commitment ideas, and client-centered practices.
Her background also includes art therapy training, which she may use when expressive work seems helpful. Her style is trauma-informed and practical. Joan offers straightforward tools for coping, communication skills practice, and ways to manage intense emotions.
She pays attention to attachment and family of origin issues when those come up in sessions. Work may include addressing abandonment, codependency, commitment and control concerns, guilt and shame, or feelings of emptiness and isolation. Joan holds a Master of Arts in Community Counseling from Governors State University and an Art Therapy Certificate from Northwestern University.
She sees individual adults ages 18 and older and conducts sessions in English.
Joan lists 9 ways of working on the entry:
What Joan works with
The areas below are the ones Joan selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Career difficulties
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 17 |
| 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 Joan Uses Therapies Online
Joan often draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in online work. ACT helps people notice thoughts and commit to actions that match their values, which can reduce avoidance and increase meaningful activity. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns and replacing them with more effective strategies for mood, anxiety, and sleep problems.She also uses Client-Centered Therapy principles, which means she listens carefully, reflects what she hears, and follows the client's lead. Together the therapist and client decide which methods fit best, and adjustments happen as goals evolve. That collaborative process helps find the right mix of skills, insight, and support.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful for a full conversation with visual cues, while phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text allow for brief exchanges, journaling-style reflection, and flexible timing during busy days. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, family, and daily routines while keeping the focus on practical 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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