About Lori
Lori Cheek Gilroy greets people with warmth and a straightforward approach. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 26 years of experience who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, parenting strain, grief, trauma, and career or life transitions. She aims to listen first and work at a pace that feels manageable for each person.
Her style centers on the person's needs and values. Lori describes her work as client-centered and solution-focused.
How Lori works
She encourages people to name small, practical goals and then uses a mix of strategies to reach them. She also draws on a faith perspective when clients want that included in sessions. Over her career Lori has worked in child welfare, family counseling, a birthing center, crisis intervention, and community mental health.
Those varied settings gave her experience with caregiving stress, adoption and foster care concerns, chronic illness, and post-traumatic stress. She brings practical ideas learned from many different roles. In sessions she blends cognitive behavioral techniques with motivational interviewing and trauma-focused tools when they fit the concern.
Conversations aim to uncover unhelpful thinking, build healthier routines, and strengthen coping skills. Lori also uses solution-focused methods to keep work goal-directed and forward moving. She offers help for relationship strain, family of origin issues, compassion fatigue, and feelings of isolation or emptiness.
People seeking guidance about aging, caregiver burden, or veteran-related concerns will find that she has experience in those areas. Lori practices in Illinois and conducts sessions in English.
Lori lists 5 ways of working on the entry:
What Lori works with
The areas below are the ones Lori selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 26 |
| 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 Lori's Approaches Work Online
Client-centered Therapy focuses on listening and building on each person's strengths. The therapist follows the person's lead, offers empathy, and helps clarify goals so sessions feel relevant and respectful.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts influence feelings and behavior. It breaks problems into manageable parts and teaches practical tools to change unhelpful thinking and daily habits. This approach is often used for anxiety, depression, stress, and mood concerns.
Finding the right method is part of the work together. Lori will help the client choose what fits best based on their needs, goals, and preferences. Sessions are collaborative and may combine approaches as progress is made.
Online therapy formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful when visual connection helps the conversation. Phone calls are a good option when bandwidth or a quieter setting is needed. Chat or text messaging can work well for brief check-ins, coaching-style support, or when someone prefers writing over speaking. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and different life situations.
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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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