2nd Story Counseling | Women’s Therapy in Chicago’s Lakeview
📍 655 W Irving Park Rd #204, Chicago, IL 60613 | 📞 773-528-1777
If you are a woman in Chicago searching for counseling, you’ve come to the right place. At 2nd Story Counseling, our therapists understand that women navigate a distinct set of pressures — biological, social, relational, and professional — that shape mental health in deeply personal ways. We provide women’s counseling that honors that complexity rather than glossing over it.
Our Lakeview office serves women from across Chicago’s North Side, including Lincoln Park, Uptown, Andersonville, Roscoe Village, and the 60613, 60614, and 60640 zip codes. Telehealth sessions are available throughout Illinois for women who prefer the flexibility of virtual care.
Why Women’s-Focused Counseling Matters
Therapy is not one-size-fits-all. Research consistently shows that women experience depression and anxiety at higher rates than men, are more likely to internalize stress, and face unique stressors tied to reproductive health, caregiving roles, and workplace inequality. A therapist who understands these dynamics — not just clinically, but culturally — can make the difference between surface-level coping and genuine, lasting change.
Female Therapists for Women’s Counseling in Chicago
Some clients prefer to work with a female therapist when discussing anxiety, relationships, trauma, caregiving, body image, identity, self-esteem, career stress, grief, major life transitions, or the quiet shame that can build around feeling not enough. At 2nd Story Counseling, our Lakeview team includes female therapists who offer thoughtful, affirming, and practical support for women across different stages of life.
Alexandra DeWoskin, LCSW
Staff Therapist
Alexandra offers an interactive, collaborative style for clients working through anxiety, depression, career challenges, stress management, relationships, trauma, self-esteem, and life transitions. Her approach is warm, conversational, and focused on helping clients create meaningful change.
Laura Bartz, MA, LSW, CADC
Staff Therapist
Laura provides a warm, accepting, and culturally humble space for clients navigating anxiety, stress, depression, grief and loss, women’s issues, trauma, relationship concerns, mindfulness, college stress, and LGBTQ+ affirming care.
Evelyn Hong, MA
Staff Therapist
Evelyn works with clients experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, burnout, relationship stress, identity concerns, self-esteem struggles, college student concerns, and major life transitions. Her style is warm, down-to-earth, and focused on helping clients feel understood and ready to move forward.
At 2SC, we take an integrative, whole-person approach to women’s therapy. Depending on your goals, your therapist may draw on Internal Family Systems (IFS), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based approaches, or relational and psychodynamic work. The method is tailored to you — not the other way around.
🌿 Women’s Counseling At 2SC
Our therapists work with women facing a wide range of life challenges, including:
- Anxiety, worry, and panic — including health anxiety and social anxiety
- Depression and persistent low mood
- Life transitions — career changes, relocation, divorce, empty nest, retirement
- Relationship and dating challenges — communication, boundaries, trust, breakups
- Body image and self-esteem
- Eating disorders — anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, disordered eating
- Trauma and PTSD — including sexual assault, domestic violence, and childhood trauma
- Perinatal mental health — fertility challenges, pregnancy loss, postpartum depression and anxiety
- Caregiver burnout — for women caring for children, aging parents, or both
- Grief and loss
- Career stress and workplace dynamics — burnout, impostor syndrome, gender discrimination
- Reproductive and hormonal mental health — PMS, PMDD, perimenopause, menopause
- Chronic illness and health concerns
- Societal and family expectations — pressure to “do it all”
- Substance use and addiction recovery
- LGBTQ+ identity and affirming care for queer and trans women
Our Approach to Women’s Therapy in Chicago
No two women walk through our door carrying identical stories. That’s why our therapists don’t apply a single formula. The work begins with curiosity — about who you are, what shaped you, and what you want your life to look like going forward.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) for Women
Internal Family Systems therapy is a particularly powerful framework for the issues many women bring to counseling. IFS helps you identify and work with the different “parts” of yourself — the inner critic, the perfectionist, the caretaker, the one who shuts down under pressure. Rather than fighting those parts, IFS teaches you to understand them, which creates meaningful, lasting relief from patterns that haven’t responded to willpower alone.
Trauma-Informed Care
Many of the women we work with carry trauma that is never named as such — the controlling relationship, the childhood that required you to be “too much” or “not enough,” the assault you were told to move past. Our therapists are trained in trauma-informed care and approach your history with respect for your pace and your safety.
Affirming Care for All Women
Our practice is affirming for women of all identities, backgrounds, and experiences. Whether you identify as straight, queer, trans, non-binary, or are exploring your identity, you will be met with genuine care and cultural competence. We understand that race, culture, and intersecting identities shape how women experience both the world and the therapy room.
Some clients prefer to work with a female therapist when discussing anxiety, relationships, trauma, caregiving, body image, identity, self-esteem, career stress, grief, major life transitions, or the quiet shame that can build around feeling not enough.
🔄 Therapy for Women in Life Transition
Life transitions are among the most common reasons women seek counseling. Change — even positive change — can unsettle your sense of identity, direction, and self-worth. Our Chicago therapists support women through:
- Career pivots, new leadership roles, and professional reinvention
- Marriage, divorce, and relationship endings
- Pregnancy, postpartum adjustment, and fertility grief
- Returning to work after caregiving leave
- Empty nest and changing family identity
- Loss of a parent or partner
- Perimenopause and menopause
- Geographic relocation and rebuilding social connection
- Retirement and questions of purpose and meaning
Women’s Therapy Across the Lifespan
Women in Their 20s and 30s
This decade is often defined by comparison, uncertainty, and pressure to have it all figured out. Women in this stage commonly work through quarter-life transitions, dating and relationship patterns, the tension between career ambition and personal life, and early experiences of anxiety or depression they’ve never fully addressed.
Women in Their 40s and 50s
Midlife brings both clarity and disruption. Women in this stage often navigate the collision of career, aging parents, parenting adolescents, shifting relationships, and the physical and emotional changes of perimenopause. This is frequently a period of profound identity re-examination — one that therapy can make genuinely transformative rather than just painful.
Women 60 and Beyond
Retirement, the loss of a partner or long-time friends, changing health, and questions of legacy and purpose all come into focus in later life. Our therapists work with older women with the same respect and attention they bring to any stage — because your story doesn’t stop mattering with age.
Meet 2nd Story Counseling
Learn more about our approach and our team in Lakeview:
⭐ Why Choose 2nd Story Counseling for Women’s Therapy?
- Experienced, integrative therapists with specializations in women’s issues
- IFS-informed care that goes deeper than symptom management
- Trauma-informed, culturally affirming practice
- Comfortable, private office in Lakeview — easily accessible from Chicago’s North Side
- Telehealth available throughout Illinois
- Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO accepted; self-pay and sliding scale options
- Flexible scheduling, including evening appointments
- Over 20 years serving Chicago women
🌷 Women’s Counseling Near Lakeview, Wrigleyville, and Chicago’s North Side
Our Lakeview office offers women’s counseling in Chicago from a location that is easy to reach from many North Side neighborhoods. We are located at 655 W. Irving Park Road, Suite 204, near Pine Grove Avenue, Broadway, Sheridan Road, Clark Street, and the Sheridan Red Line station.
Clients often come to us from Lakeview, Wrigleyville, Buena Park, Uptown, Northalsted, Ravenswood, Andersonville, Lincoln Park, Roscoe Village, North Center, Gold Coast, Old Town, Bucktown, Wicker Park, and Logan Square. Our office is also near familiar neighborhood landmarks and corridors, including Wrigley Field, Broadway, Irving Park Road, Lake Shore Drive, and Chicago’s North Side lakefront.
🚇 For clients using public transportation, our office is close to the CTA Red Line at Sheridan and accessible by nearby bus routes along Irving Park Road, Broadway, Clark Street, and Sheridan Road. For those driving, street parking may be available in the surrounding area, though availability can vary depending on the time of day, Cubs games, neighborhood events, and general traffic around Lakeview and Wrigleyville.
🌿 Whether you are coming by CTA, rideshare, bike, or car, our goal is to make accessing therapy for women in Chicago feel welcoming, practical, and grounded in real life. In-person women’s counseling is available at our Lakeview office, and secure telehealth therapy is available for clients throughout Illinois.
You’ve been managing a lot. Therapy is the place where you don’t have to manage — where you get to be honest, get curious, and start to feel like yourself again.
Ready to begin? Call our Chicago counseling office at (773) 528-1777 or send a confidential note through our online contact form.
Frequently Asked Questions: Women’s Counseling in Chicago
What kinds of issues do women’s therapists at 2SC treat?
Our therapists work with the full range of challenges women face: anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship difficulties, career stress, body image concerns, eating disorders, perinatal mental health, caregiver burnout, grief, and major life transitions. If you’re not sure whether your concern fits, reach out — it almost certainly does.
Do I need to identify as having a mental health condition to come to therapy?
Not at all. Many of the women we see come to therapy not in crisis, but because something feels off — a low-grade dissatisfaction, a pattern they keep repeating, a season of life that feels heavier than it should. You don’t need a diagnosis to benefit from counseling.
Do you offer therapy for women who have experienced trauma or domestic violence?
Yes. Our therapists are trained in trauma-informed care and work with women who have experienced sexual assault, domestic violence, childhood trauma, and other difficult experiences. We move at your pace and prioritize your sense of safety throughout the process.
Do you offer telehealth therapy for women in Illinois?
Yes. Virtual therapy sessions are available for women anywhere in Illinois. Many clients combine in-person and telehealth sessions based on their schedule and preference.
Do you see women who identify as LGBTQ+?
Absolutely. Our practice is affirming for lesbian, bisexual, queer, trans, and non-binary women. You won’t need to educate your therapist on your identity — we show up prepared to meet you where you are.
What is IFS therapy, and is it good for women?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic model that works with the different “parts” of your inner world — the inner critic, the perfectionist, the protector who shuts you down. IFS is especially effective for women dealing with chronic self-criticism, relationship patterns, anxiety, and trauma, because it addresses the roots of these patterns rather than just the surface symptoms.
How do I get started with women’s counseling at 2nd Story Counseling?
Call us at (773) 528-1777 or use our online contact form. We’ll match you with a therapist whose background and approach fit your needs. Initial consultations are available to help you decide if 2SC is the right fit.