Grief Counseling in Northbrook & Libertyville
Grief is not a disorder and it does not need curing. Counseling helps when it has become something you are carrying alone, or when it has stopped moving.
Most people do not need therapy to grieve. They need time, and people who will sit with them. Counseling earns its place when the people are not there, when the loss is complicated by how it happened, or when months have passed and nothing has shifted at all.
It also helps with the losses that do not get casseroles: a divorce, a diagnosis, a pregnancy that did not continue, a parent who is still alive but no longer recognises you, a career that ended before you were ready.
We see clients at our Northbrook office on Academy Drive and our Libertyville office on Hollister Drive, and by telehealth anywhere in Illinois.
When counseling tends to help
- The loss was sudden, violent, or involved circumstances that are hard to think about
- Grief has become stuck — the same intensity, months on, with no movement
- You are functioning so well that nobody has asked how you are since the first fortnight
- The relationship was complicated, and the grief is tangled with anger or relief you feel guilty about
- A child or teenager in the family is grieving and you are unsure what they need
- Anniversaries, holidays or birthdays reliably take you under
How we work with grief
Grief work is less structured than anxiety or depression treatment, and deliberately so. Much of it is telling the story to someone who will not rush you through it — including the parts that are not socially acceptable to say out loud.
Where grief is complicated by trauma, our trauma-informed clinicians work with both. Where it is sitting on top of depression, we treat that too; the two are distinguishable and the distinction matters for what helps.
For families, we work with the whole system. Children grieve in bursts rather than continuously, which worries adults who read it as not caring, and teenagers often protect their parents by grieving somewhere else entirely.
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.
- Marina Shakhman, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist · Clinical Director
- Marisa Kunz, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Christine Petersen, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Angela Eads, Ph.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Jauren D. Kelly, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Benjamin Michaels, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Carol Dreyer, LMFT, LCPCMarriage & Family Therapist
- Andrew Hamlyn, 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
There is no required waiting period. Some people come in the first fortnight because they have no one to talk to; others come two years on because an anniversary has brought it back. Neither is too early or too late. What matters is whether you are carrying it alone.
Yes, though they overlap and can occur together. Grief tends to come in waves tied to reminders, with the capacity for ordinary feeling in between. Depression is flatter and more constant, and attacks your sense of your own worth in a way grief usually does not. Part of an initial consultation is telling them apart, because the treatments differ.
Yes. Several of our clinicians work with children and adolescents, often alongside parent guidance, since the most useful thing is usually the adults understanding what grief looks like at that age. Children grieve in bursts rather than continuously, and that is normal rather than a sign of not caring.
In most cases yes, when it is provided as part of mental health treatment. Grand Oaks is in-network with most major plans, including Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Our Intake Team verifies your benefits before your first appointment and tells you what your cost will be.
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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