Debra (Debbie) Shepard
Calm guidance for practical change
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed in
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Debra
Debra (Debbie) Shepard is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) practicing in Illinois. She offers a warm, interactive style aimed at helping people manage stress, anxiety, and major life changes. Her tone is practical and supportive for someone looking for straightforward help with parenting, relationships, or mood concerns.
Debbie draws on 14 years of clinical and supervisory experience in behavioral health. She uses approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness when they match a person's needs.
Background and approach
She also integrates elements of the Gottman Method and Motivational Interviewing for relationship work and motivation-focused goals. Sessions focus on setting clear, practical goals and building on a person’s strengths. Conversations are collaborative and tailored to immediate concerns, such as sleep, eating, addiction, or coping after loss or trauma.
The therapist blends short-term tools with deeper exploration when that is helpful. Her background includes work with a broad range of concerns: depression, anxiety, parenting, substance use, career shifts, trauma, ADHD, and compassion fatigue. She brings supervisory experience to her clinical work, which supports careful case planning and thoughtful treatment choices.
People who want pragmatic steps and a steady, empathetic guide may find this approach useful. The first meetings typically clarify priorities, outline therapy tasks, and agree on next steps together.
How Debra’s approaches translate to online therapy
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and responding to what each person says matters most. The therapist creates space for people to talk through concerns and makes decisions together about next steps. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, uses clear, practical exercises to change unhelpful thinking and behavior. It can help with anxiety, depression, sleep, and many everyday problems.Finding the right approach is part of the work itself. Debra collaborates with clients to identify which methods fit their goals and comfort level. The plan can change as needs evolve, combining short-term tools with deeper conversation when useful.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy flexible. This variety lets people choose what fits their life on a given day - a quick text check-in, a focused phone conversation, or a longer video session. These options aim to make starting and keeping up with therapy easier for busy families and individuals.
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.
Gottman Method
A research-based framework for couples, focused on how partners argue, repair, and stay connected. Practical and structured, with exercises to try between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
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What training and experience does she have?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Debra
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point