Debbie Hayes
Compassionate, practical counseling for life’s challenges
- Credentials
- LCPC
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed in
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Debbie
Debbie Hayes is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor who focuses on practical help for people feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, grief, or life transitions. She writes in a warm, nonjudgmental way and aims to make sessions approachable and straightforward. Her style is interactive and respectful, with an emphasis on building on each person's strengths.
Debbie has ten years of experience that include work as a caseworker and as a counselor in Illinois.
Background and approach
She uses a mix of methods to match the needs of the person in front of her. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Emotionally-Focused Therapy are part of her toolkit. She also draws on client-centered and existential ideas when they fit the situation.
Sessions are shaped around practical steps and clearer thinking rather than jargon. Her background includes training in multicultural counseling and continuing education to stay current with research and best practices. She has worked with a wide range of concerns such as depression, relationship problems, addictions, trauma and abuse, parenting challenges, and bipolar disorder.
That experience informs how she tailors conversations and plans for change. Debbie can integrate Christian-based perspectives when a person requests that approach. She makes room for faith within therapy and will discuss how those beliefs can guide goals and coping strategies.
Her approach is collaborative and respectful of each person's values. Sessions are offered in English and provided from Illinois. She holds the LCPC credential, Illinois license number 180.010923, and brings a practical, steady presence to help people move toward clearer choices.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely and reflecting back what matters to the person. It helps people feel heard and often opens space for clearer choices and personal insight. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns and teaches practical skills to change them; it is useful for anxiety, depression, and stress. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, called ACT, helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings while choosing actions that match their values; it can help with avoidance and emotional pain.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t helped before. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. These options let people fit sessions into busy schedules and continue work between meetings. Licensed professionals can use these formats to teach skills, process difficult experiences, and support steady progress toward goals.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Debbie
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point