Sara Gawenda, LPC
- Attachment & Trauma
- Anxiety/Depression/Mood Disorders
- Child and Adolescent Developmental issues
- Grief/Loss
- PTSD
- LGBTQ+
- Multicultural therapy
- Chronic Illness/Infectious Disease
- Animal-assisted Therapy
- Substance Abuse
- Sex, Kink, and Fetish Positive
Sara recognizes the great courage it takes to engage in a therapeutic relationship and to ask a stranger to aid in understanding your story. Sara believes each of the people and families she works with have the potential to achieve greater success, develop more meaningful and healthy relationships, and to create a more fulfilling life. In session she engages genuine dialogue and family interactions to create a more supportive and sustainable environment for each individual family member to thrive. Sara utilizes an eclectic approach utilizing tools from a variety of mental health treatments and is known for providing culturally aware and compassionate individual therapy, group therapy, interdisciplinary teamwork, crisis intervention, and animal-assisted therapy in a variety of settings. She is a charismatic and positive person.
Sara lives in the Southwest Suburbs of Chicago where she enjoys the outdoors and connecting with others through food, animals, culture, music, and art. Sara spends her free time training her dogs, making cards for individuals in hospice, and exploring the benefits of pet ownership. Sara is an Illinois Licensed Professional Counselor. She received her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Health Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Miami. Sara has been providing high quality mental health services in the Chicagoland area for over a decade.