Licensed Professional Counselor
Rachel Rosales
LPC, EMDR
Therapy for ages 16+
Licensed in both Illinois and Wyoming.
I am committed to providing person-centered, diversity-affirming care where clients feel safe, supported, and empowered to explore their experiences. My passion lies in helping individuals heal from trauma, complex trauma, and intergenerational trauma, reclaiming their voice and building the life they want to live.
As a Hispanic American therapist, my lived experiences, along with my professional and educational background, have shaped my dedication to offering culturally sensitive, LGBTQIA+ affirming, and neurodivergent-affirming therapy. I value honoring each client’s unique perspective while creating a therapeutic space where authenticity and growth are always welcome.
My career has spanned outpatient substance abuse treatment, inpatient and intensive outpatient programs, and private practice across urban, suburban, and rural communities. These experiences have strengthened my belief in meeting each client with empathy, respect, and collaboration. Together, we’ll build on your resilience while developing new ways to cope, shift unhelpful patterns, and create a more balanced way of seeing the world.
I use an integrative, individualized approach, drawing from CBT, ACT, EMDR, ERP, and DBT to provide therapy that adapts to your needs and goals.
About Me:
Outside of therapy, I enjoy playing video games (especially J-RPGs and fighting games), reading, baking, and crafting — particularly needle felting, diamond painting, and origami. I also enjoy attending community events, and learning animal facts.
Education:
Master of Arts in Forensic Psychology, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, 2022
What are your top specialties?
I enjoy working with trauma and complex trauma survivors, neurodiverse clients, and clients with psychotic disorders.
What would you say to someone considering therapy with you?
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions, or if you just want to chat and see if this feels like a good fit.
What does a typical session with you look like?
Most sessions start with a check in about what went well and what did not go well since the last session. We use that as a jumping off point to look at several options for where we want to focus for the day.
I want to work with the whole person, not just the diagnosis. It's important to look at all aspects of a person; their current situation, their past, their relationships, their culture, their interests, their strengths, and what they value, to truly understand the best approach to supporting them as we work together toward their goals.
Who is your ideal client?
I want to work collaboratively with you on the things that matter most to you as a person. I love seeing the moment when a client is able to see their past from a new perspective.
What insurance do you accept?
BCBS PPO, Aetna, Anthem, and Cigna/Evernorth.
Rachel’s Approach
ACT: Acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT, focuses on helping you live your life based on the values that are most important to you. This is done by learning to recognize and accept your thoughts and your feelings without getting stuck in them, learning to shift your focus between your internal experience and your external experience, clarifying what matters most to you, and taking actions that align with your values.
EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, utilizes bilateral movements (typically eye movements or tapping yourself on either side of your body) while focusing on specific memories to help your brain reprocess experiences that have left you feeling stuck, hopeless, or trapped. This approach was designed as a form of trauma treatment, but has been proven effective in treating other conditions such as depression, anxiety, OCD, and various personality disorders.
DBT: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) includes four main components: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. This approach can be helpful if you find yourself having big, overwhelming emotions, particularly if you feel that these emotions are negatively impacting your relationships and sense of self.
CBT: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the connection between a situation, our thoughts and feelings about a situation, and our response to the situation. We look at how our thoughts and behaviors reinforce our negative experiences and outcomes, and work to gradually change the way we think and respond to situations to achieve a better outcome and reduce emotional distress. We also focus on reworking negative core beliefs about ourselves that keep us feeling stuck and unhappy.
ERP: Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a type of exposure therapy that is the gold standard for OCD treatment. We work together to identify the particular sub-type of obsessions that is causing you the most distress, and identify the compulsions that reinforce these obsessions. From there, we work together to develop a plan for exposures to engage in both inside and outside of the therapy room to decrease the distress association with your obsessions. We also create a list of "banned behaviors," or compulsions that you must not engage in during your exposures. Over time we teach the brain that anxiety is not dangerous, and we can experience our thoughts as thoughts without needing to neutralize them.
Click here for more detailed information on therapeutic modalities.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a structured, goal-oriented type of talk therapy that can help manage mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, and emotional concerns, such as coping with grief or stress.
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Internal Family Systems (IFS) is frequently used as an evidence-based psychotherapy, helping people heal by accessing and healing their protective and wounded inner parts.
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that is designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories.
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Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a type of talk therapy, specially adapted for people who experience emotions very intensely.
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Used commonly as a treatment for OCD, the exposure component of ERP refers to practicing confronting the thoughts, images, objects, and situations that make you anxious and/or provoke your obsessions.
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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a type of psychotherapy that helps you move beyond negative thoughts and feelings in a meaningful way by accepting that your thoughts and emotions are an appropriate response to certain situations and committing to making changes in your life that match your values.
Top Specialties:
Trauma and PTSD
Autism
Depression
Areas of Expertise:
ADHD
Anxiety
Bipolar Disorder
Borderline Personality (BPD)
Chronic Illness
Culturally Sensitive Therapy
Divorce
Domestic Violence
EMDR Therapy
Immigration Issues
LGBTQIA+ Identity Support
Mood Disorders
Neurodiversity
Obsessive Compulsive (OCD)
Personality Disorders
Psychotic Symptoms
Racial Identity
Relationship Issues
Stress
Substance Use
Suicidal Ideation
Women's Issues
Book with Rachel.
Interested in working together? Fill out the form below, call (630) 940-6828 or email scheduling@paderatherapy.com. We also offer a 15-minute free phone consultation.
Questions about insurance?
Give us a call or email scheduling@paderatherapy.com. We can often work with insurance companies if we are out-of-network. If we are an out-of-network provider or you do not have insurance, our rate is currently $135.00 for a 53 minute session. However, we also offer reduced rates in special circumstances. Finances should never be a deterrent for seeking help! We work with families to come up with a number that works for you.