Anxiety Therapy in Northbrook & Libertyville
Anxiety is the most common reason people call us. It is also one of the most treatable conditions in mental health — which is worth saying plainly, because anxiety tends to convince people otherwise.
Anxiety stops being ordinary worry when it starts making decisions for you: the invitation you turn down, the appointment you keep rescheduling, the email you reread eleven times before sending. Most people who call us have been managing it for years and have stopped noticing how much it costs them.
Our clinicians treat anxiety across the lifespan — the seven-year-old with stomachaches every Sunday night, the high schooler whose grades are fine but who cannot sleep, the adult whose job performance has never slipped and who is exhausted from holding it together.
We see clients at our Northbrook office on Academy Drive and our Libertyville office on Hollister Drive, and by telehealth anywhere in Illinois.
What people describe when they call
- Worry that runs on a loop and will not switch off, particularly at night
- Physical symptoms with no medical cause — chest tightness, nausea, headaches, a racing heart
- Avoiding situations, places or conversations, and the world getting smaller because of it
- Panic attacks that arrive without an obvious trigger
- Perfectionism and overpreparing that look like diligence and feel like dread
- In children: school refusal, clinginess, stomachaches, trouble separating at drop-off
How we treat it
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the first-line, research-supported treatment for most anxiety, and it is where most of our work starts. CBT is practical: you learn to catch the thinking patterns that keep anxiety running, and you practise doing the thing anxiety says you cannot do, in steps small enough to succeed at.
For anxiety that is tangled up with trauma, perfectionism or long-standing patterns, our clinicians also draw on Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills, Acceptance and Commitment approaches, psychodynamic work and mindfulness. Which one you get depends on you, not on a protocol.
Where attention problems are driving the anxiety rather than the other way round — a distinction that is easy to miss and changes the treatment entirely — we can assess for that first through psychological testing.
Clinicians who work in this area
Matched from each clinician's own stated specialisms. Our Intake Team will pair you with the right person for your situation rather than the next available slot.
- Debra P. Wolff, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Marisa Kunz, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Christine Petersen, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Angela Eads, Ph.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Benjamin Michaels, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Andrew Hamlyn, LCPCLicensed Clinical Professional Counselor
- Ellen Rodman, M.S., LCPCLicensed Clinical Professional Counselor
- Bella Sisarica, MA, LCPCLicensed Clinical Professional Counselor
Insurance, including Medicare
Grand Oaks Behavioral Health is in-network with most major plans — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Aetna, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Evernorth (Cigna), UnitedHealthcare, BCBS Community Medicaid, Oscar — and with Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans, which a good number of behavioral health practices in the area do not accept. We also take BCBS Community Medicaid. Our Intake Team verifies your specific benefits and tells you your cost before your first appointment.
Where we see clients
604 Academy Drive, Northbrook, IL 60062 and 1800 Hollister Drive, Suite 201, Libertyville, IL 60048, plus telehealth anywhere in Illinois. We regularly see clients from Northbrook, Glenview, Deerfield, Highland Park, Northfield, Wilmette and across Lake County and the North Shore.
Common questions
Many people with focused anxiety concerns notice meaningful change within 12 to 20 sessions of CBT, though it depends on how long the anxiety has been running and what else is going on. Your clinician will talk with you about an expected course at the start rather than leaving it open-ended, and will review it with you as you go.
Not necessarily. For mild to moderate anxiety, therapy alone is a first-line treatment with results that hold up after treatment ends. Grand Oaks does not prescribe — we are Psychologists and Clinical Therapists — so if medication becomes worth considering we will raise it with you and coordinate with your physician or refer you to a prescriber, with your consent.
Yes. Several of our clinicians work specifically with children and teens, using play-based and developmentally-informed approaches for younger children and CBT for older ones. Parent guidance is usually part of the plan, because what happens between sessions at home matters more than the hour in the room.
Grand Oaks Behavioral Health is in-network with most major plans, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Aetna, Evernorth (Cigna), UnitedHealthcare, Oscar, Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans. Our Intake Team verifies your specific benefits before your first appointment and tells you what you will owe, so there are no surprises afterwards.
Related
Not sure which of these fits? That is what the first call is for. Phone (847) 549-1189 and our Intake Team will talk it through with you before anything is booked.
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