Services
Individual Therapy (Virtual)
Lionheart Exposure Therapy offers individual therapy for anxiety disorders, OCD, and phobias using Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) and an approach rooted in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT). Additional evidence-based strategies are used when helpful, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and elements of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, especially distress tolerance and mindfulness skills— see modalities below.
Services are offered for adults (18+), with a special focus on young adults, and occasional availability for younger teens depending on individual needs and whether exposure-based therapy is the right fit.
Sessions are primarily held virtually across Illinois, with opportunities to meet in person for real-world exposure work and Walk & Talk therapy in the St. Charles area.
In-Person Therapy Options
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Some fears are best faced where they actually show up. In addition to virtual therapy, real-world exposure sessions are available in the St. Charles area. During these sessions, we meet in the community and work together to practice exposures in everyday settings such as stores, restaurants, social environments, or other places anxiety has been difficult to face alone.
These sessions are planned gradually and collaboratively, with the goal of helping you build confidence through experience and learn that discomfort does not mean danger. Facing fears in real life allows the brain to learn in a way that talking alone can’t.
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Walk & Talk sessions are available in the St. Charles area for clients who prefer to meet outdoors while working toward therapy goals. Walking side-by-side can make it easier to talk, lower the pressure of sitting face-to-face, and create natural opportunities to practice facing situations that bring up anxiety.
These sessions can be used as part of exposure therapy, for general support, or as a more relaxed and active alternative to traditional sessions, depending on your goals and comfort level.
Modalities
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ACT helps us make space for uncomfortable thoughts and feelings instead of fighting them, so we have more freedom to live in ways that matter to us. Through skills like thought defusion and self-as-context, we learn to see thoughts as passing experiences the mind creates that are not always meaningful or important. This allows us to step back and see things neutrally, without automatically attaching a meaning — instead of “a floor means dirty,” we can learn to see “a floor is a floor.” ACT also uses a lot of metaphors, which help make these ideas easier to understand and apply in everyday situations.
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CBT focuses on recognizing patterns in our thinking and learning to reframe thoughts that contain assumptions, judgments, or absolutes, so that situations feel more manageable. It is based on the idea that thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physical sensations all influence each other, often referred to as the CBT cycle. While we can’t control what we feel or what thoughts show up, we can control how we respond to them through our actions and the way we direct our thinking.
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DBT was originally developed to help people manage intense emotions, communicate those emotions more effectively, and find better emotional balance, with skills that fall on a spectrum of acceptance and change. For anxiety, the acceptance-based skills are often the most helpful, with a focus on distress tolerance and mindfulness.
Distress tolerance focuses on getting through uncomfortable moments without making them worse. One skill we often use during exposures is “ride the wave,” which means allowing anxiety to rise and fall on its own while reminding ourselves that emotions are temporary and will pass. Mindfulness helps us notice thoughts and feelings without judging them or getting stuck in reactions like “I shouldn’t be thinking this” or “why am I like this.”
The word “dialectical” in the name Dialectical Behavior Therapy refers to the idea that two opposing things can be true at the same time— something can feel really uncomfortable, AND we can still move forward anyway.
Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP)
see Starting Exposure Therapy or click below