Thomas Buckner
Compassionate counselor for practical change
- Credentials
- LCPC
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed in
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Thomas
Thomas Buckner is a licensed clinical professional counselor in Illinois who helps people facing depression, anxiety, trauma, and mood concerns. He offers straightforward support for stress, addictions, low self-esteem, and identity questions such as LGBT issues. The first meeting focuses on understanding what matters to the person and what feels most urgent right now.
His style is warm and practical. He listens closely and then suggests simple tools to try between sessions.
Background and approach
Sessions often include talking through patterns, learning skills for managing strong emotions, and setting small steps toward clearer goals. Thomas draws on several evidence-based approaches to fit each person’s needs. He uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to clarify values and build action, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to spot and change unhelpful thoughts, and Attachment-Based ideas to track how early relationships affect current bonds.
He also uses Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Client-Centered methods when those are a good match. With 15 years of experience as an LCPC Thomas has worked with a wide range of concerns including trauma and abuse, bipolar and depressive disorders, ADHD, chronic stress, caregiver strain, relationship and communication problems, and issues tied to divorce or blended families.
He frames therapy as a collaborative process rather than advice-giving. People who choose him usually want practical strategies plus space to reflect. Thomas helps clients set realistic goals, practice new ways of coping, and notice progress over time.
How therapy approaches translate to online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify what matters most and take small action steps toward those values while accepting difficult thoughts and feelings. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and stress when someone wants practical direction tied to personal values. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with real-life experiments. It is commonly used for anxiety, mood concerns, and coping with everyday stressors. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current patterns and helps people build safer ways of connecting and communicating in relationships.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. Thomas will talk with each person about goals and preferences, and together they decide which methods to try. Therapy often combines techniques from different approaches so the plan fits the individual situation.
Online sessions offer flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy week and to check in between meetings. Many people find that having multiple formats helps them practice skills in real time and keeps progress moving forward.
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.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Looks at how early bonds shaped what you expect from closeness, and how that plays out now with a partner, a parent, or your own children.
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.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
- Self esteem
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Stress, Anxiety
- Traumatic brain injury
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Thomas
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point