Joan French
Compassionate therapist using practical, creative tools
LCPC Illinois
- Experience
- 17 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Stress, Anxiety, Relationship, Trauma and abuse
- Approaches
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Languages
- English
About Joan
Joan French is an LCPC with 17 years of clinical experience who supports people working through stress, anxiety, relationship challenges, trauma and abuse, low self-esteem, depression, grief, sleeping difficulties, career concerns, and coping with life changes.
Background and approach
She also addresses issues such as abandonment, attachment and codependency, commitment and communication problems, control issues, divorce and separation, family of origin wounds, and feelings of emptiness, shame, guilt, isolation, and jealousy. Joan welcomes clients who identify as LGBT and those navigating gender dysphoria.
Her style emphasizes creating a trusting, nonjudgmental space where difficult or painful topics can be spoken aloud. She describes her work as resourceful, creative, and patient, and brings a trauma-informed, integrative perspective to sessions.
Joan often blends cognitive behavioral techniques with acceptance and commitment strategies, dialectical skills, emotionally focused interventions, and client-centered principles, and she may include expressive methods such as art-based approaches when helpful. Joan earned a Master of Arts in Community Counseling from Governors State University and holds an Art Therapy Certificate from Northwestern University.
She practices in Illinois and sees individual adult clients ages 18 and up. Her approach aims to help people feel heard, connected, and better able to move forward in their lives.
How evidence-based approaches translate to online care
Joan commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in her work. CBT focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors to reduce symptoms like anxiety and depression, while ACT emphasizes values-guided action and learning to accept difficult internal experiences rather than fighting them. Both approaches can be adapted to talk-based and skill-building formats online to address mood, stress, and coping challenges.She also draws on client-centered principles that prioritize empathy and a trusting therapeutic relationship, which helps clients feel heard and supported even when meeting remotely. Determining which approach or combination of methods is best is a collaborative process that Joan uses with each client, tailoring sessions to their goals, preferences, and life circumstances.
Offering video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, online therapy provides flexibility for people balancing work, family, or mobility constraints. These formats make it easier to access consistent care, practice techniques between sessions, and maintain continuity of treatment when schedules or locations change.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
17+ years
Licensed
Illinois
Languages
English