Depression Therapy in Libertyville
Depression is treatable, and it responds better to being addressed than waited out. Our Libertyville office sees adults, teenagers and older adults from across Lake County.
Most people who call about depression have been managing it for a while before they ring. That is the nature of it — it arrives slowly, it lowers what you expect of a day, and by the time it is obviously a problem it has usually been one for months. There is no threshold you have to reach before it is worth a conversation.
It also does not always look like sadness. For a lot of people the first sign is that everything takes more effort than it used to: the email that sits unanswered for a week, the friend you keep meaning to call, the work that used to take an hour. Irritability is common and often missed, particularly in men and in teenagers. So is waking at four in the morning for no reason you can name.
The Libertyville office is at 1800 Hollister Drive in Hawthorn Health Center, and the people who use it come from across Lake County — Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Grayslake, Gurnee, Round Lake, Lake Forest and the towns north of them.
What people describe when they call
- Low mood that has outlasted whatever set it off, or that arrived without anything setting it off
- Everything taking more effort than it should — work, replies, leaving the house
- Sleep that has changed in either direction, and waking far too early
- Losing interest in things you used to look forward to
- Irritability that is out of proportion, which is how depression often presents in men and teenagers
- Appetite or weight that has shifted without you deciding to change anything
- A sense that you are managing, but only just, and have been for some time
How the work is approached
The first appointments establish what kind of depression this is, because the answer changes the treatment. Depression that follows a loss is not the same as depression that has been present since adolescence, and neither is the same as low mood sitting on top of an untreated anxiety problem or a thyroid condition nobody has checked.
From there the approaches are the well-evidenced ones. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which eleven of our clinicians work in, for the thinking and the withdrawal that keep depression running. Behavioural activation, which is less talked about and often what moves things first. Interpersonal and psychodynamic work where the depression is bound up in relationships or in patterns that go back a long way.
We do not prescribe — no one at the practice is a psychiatrist. Where medication is worth considering alongside therapy, we say so plainly and work alongside your physician or a psychiatrist rather than leaving you to join the two up yourself.
Getting to the Libertyville office
Suite 201, Hawthorn Health Center, 1800 Hollister Drive. Parking is directly outside and the building is shared with other medical practices — give the suite number at the entrance.
The Libertyville Metra station is a short drive. Cook Park and the Libertyville Sports Complex are the nearest landmarks if you navigate by those rather than by address.
Telehealth is available anywhere in Illinois, which matters with depression more than with most things — the weeks when leaving the house is hardest are exactly the weeks when an appointment should not be the thing that gets cancelled.
1800 Hollister Drive, Suite 201, Libertyville, IL 60048 on Google Maps →
Insurance, including Medicare
We are in-network with most major plans — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Aetna, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Evernorth (Cigna), UnitedHealthcare, BCBS Community Medicaid, Oscar — including Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Our Intake Team verifies your benefits and tells you your cost before the first appointment. See the full list →
Common questions
Most people notice something shifting within six to twelve sessions, though that varies widely and is not a promise. What is more predictable is that the first few appointments are about getting the picture right, and that treating the wrong thing accurately is the usual reason therapy stalls.
Sometimes, and often not. For mild to moderate depression, therapy alone has good evidence behind it. Where medication is worth considering we will say so and coordinate with your physician — nobody at the practice prescribes, so that is a conversation we have with you rather than a decision we make.
Yes. Fifteen of our clinicians work with teenagers, and depression in adolescence often looks like irritability and withdrawal rather than sadness. See our teen and adolescent therapy page for how that work is structured.
We are in network with most major plans including Medicare and Medicare Advantage, and our Intake Team verifies your specific benefits and tells you your cost before the first appointment rather than after it.
Also at this office
Read more about this service
This page covers depression therapy at our Libertyville office. For the clinical detail — what the work involves, who it suits and how it is structured — see Depression Therapy in Northbrook & Libertyville →
