Debra Schwarze, LCPC, LPC

Debra Schwarze is a licensed counselor with decades of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and life changes. She works with people facing caregiver strain, cancer-related concerns, mood disorders, ADHD, and relationship or family issues. She also supports those coping with end-of-life decisions, divorce, loneliness, and questions about life purpose.

Debra uses straightforward, person-focused counseling. She centers each conversation on what matters to the client and listens for practical ways to move forward. She often pairs talking with creative methods, including art-making when people want a different way to express difficult feelings.

Her approach draws on client-centered therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Those methods help people identify unhelpful thinking patterns and try new behaviors. Debra also integrates mindfulness practices to reduce rumination and EMDR for processing traumatic memories when appropriate.

Debra trained at the master's level in counseling and art therapy and holds licenses in Illinois and Wisconsin as LCPC and LPC. She has worked across community mental health, schools, faith-based settings, health systems, and private practice for many years. That variety informs a flexible, practical style.

In sessions she aims to build a comfortable space for honest conversation. She will help set goals, try small changes, and track what is helpful. The work is collaborative and paced to each person's needs.

If someone is unsure where to begin, Debra guides the first steps and helps prioritize what feels most important to address next.

Therapeutic approaches and how they work online

Client-centered therapy focuses on the person in front of the therapist. It emphasizes listening, empathy, and helping the client set the pace and goals of treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts and behaviors interact and teaches concrete skills to change patterns that keep problems going. EMDR is an approach used to process traumatic memories so they become less distressing and more manageable.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Debra will talk with the client about goals and preferences, then recommend methods that fit the situation. That decision is collaborative and can change over time as needs and progress become clearer.

The biography does not list specific online session formats, so please confirm what is offered before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy week, save travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when needed. Therapists can adapt CBT exercises, mindfulness practices, and many EMDR preparations to remote work, and creative options like art-based activities can be discussed to fit the chosen format.