Mark Mikyska, LCPC - Therapist in Illinois

About Mark

Mark Mikyska is an Illinois-licensed clinical professional counselor (LCPC) with 18 years of experience. He offers a warm, interactive style and focuses on family and parenting concerns alongside a broad range of life stresses. He aims to help people manage anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship strains in practical, clear ways.

Sessions are conversational and respectful. Mark uses mindfulness and trauma-informed skills to help clients notice patterns and learn tools they can use between meetings.

Background and approach

He often draws on psychodynamic ideas to understand past influences and on existential thinking to address meaning and choices. He has a long history working in Chicago-area crisis and therapy settings, helping people facing grief, addiction, caregiver stress, and complicated life transitions. His background includes work with first responders, veterans, and people coping with chronic illness and aging-related issues.

In therapy people can expect to talk through current problems, practice skills for managing emotions, and reflect on how earlier experiences shape present reactions. The pace is collaborative and geared toward building the client’s own capacity to cope. Mark offers sessions in English and works remotely with clients in Illinois.

His approach aims to balance practical strategies and deeper personal meaning, so clients leave with usable tools and clearer direction.

Approaches that guide online sessions

Mark uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to identify unhelpful thoughts and try small, practical changes. CBT is useful for anxiety, depression, sleeping problems, and managing stress. He also uses Trauma-Focused Therapy to address the effects of past trauma and emotional abuse, helping people build safety and reduce painful reactions.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. He works collaboratively to choose methods that match a person’s needs, goals, and comfort level. Sessions may combine different approaches so the work stays practical and meaningful.

Online sessions are offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. These options let people fit therapy into busy schedules, keep working during life transitions, and use shorter check-ins when useful. The goal is to make it easier to learn coping skills, reflect on challenges, and move toward clearer solutions while working with a licensed professional.

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.

Existential Therapy

Takes the larger questions seriously: meaning, choice, mortality, responsibility. Suited to periods when the difficulty is less a symptom than a sense that something has to change.

Mindfulness Therapy

Attention training: noticing thoughts and physical feelings as they arrive without being carried off by them. Much of it is practice you do yourself, so guidance over video or audio works much as it would in person.

Frequently asked questions

What kinds of problems does he address?

He works with stress, anxiety, depression, family and parenting issues, trauma and abuse, addictions, grief, relationship and intimacy concerns, sleeping problems, anger, career stress, bipolar, ADHD, and related areas.

What is his general therapy style?

His style is warm and interactive. He blends practical skills with reflection to help people manage symptoms and understand patterns in their lives.

How long has he been practicing?

He has 18 years of experience working as a therapist and crisis worker in the Chicago area and surrounding Illinois communities.

What are his credentials and where is he based?

He is an Illinois LCPC with license number IL LCPC 180008022 and practices in Illinois.

Which languages are sessions offered in?

Sessions are offered in English.

Can people outside the U.S. work with him?

He does not accept international clients and works with people located in Illinois.

What session formats are available?

He offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different needs and schedules.

What does therapy cost and how are sessions scheduled?

Cost varies with location and therapist availability and sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time. To begin, select the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule according to therapist availability.

Specialties and expertise

Top specialties

Therapeutic approaches

Experience: 18 years
Licensed: Illinois
Languages: English

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