Elissa Graff

B.A.

    • Young Adults

    • Adults

    • Trauma

    • Anxiety

    • Depression

    • Relationships

    • Body Image

    • Disordered Eating

    • Attachment

    • OCD

    • Adler University 
      Completed Coursework - PsyD Clinical Psychology

    • DePaul University
      BA Sociology

We may be a good fit if you’re…

  • Healing from trauma, loss or separation

  • Seeking to improve communication or enhance connection with your partner

  • Looking for support related to gender exploration, sexuality, gender dynamics, identity, or expression 

  • Clarifying your personal values and wanting to be aligned with them

  • Feeling lost, confused, in self-doubt, or out of control in your life

  • Overwhelmed by your sense of obligation to others

  • Struggling with perfectionism, self-criticism, or needing approval from others

  • Wanting to find meaning and purpose

WHEN WE OBSERVE MOMENTS IN WHICH OPENNESS OR CURIOSITY FALTERS, WE CAN EXPLORE UNDERLYING CONFLICTS OR STRUGGLES THAT PREVENT US FROM LIVING WITH MEANING AND AUTHENTICITY.

Therapy is a generative process, and I embrace deep, thoughtful exploration as well as the inherent moments of spontaneity that promote growth. In the context of a safe and trusting relationship, it is important to give and receive feedback and for therapy to model healthy communication.

I appreciate working with clients throughout the lifespan to tackle expected and unexpected milestones and to help make sense and meaning of these change points. Developmental events often require us to shift our views of ourselves - who we are and what we value. In the therapeutic space, our work promotes a greater feeling of wholeness and continuity through these transitions.

My role is to support you in identifying, understanding, and integrating your needs and values within your unique sociocultural context. At the same time, it may be important to discover how your environment and those around impact your experience of yourself. Conversations around attachment patterns, gender dynamics, identity, and more broadly - family, historical, or cultural expectations - are often an important backdrop to our work together.

My aim is to be a collaborator and facilitator in your developing richer and more meaningful connections in your life. Individuals or couple who work with me often struggle with conflicts related to agency and self-efficacy and have difficulty locating or hearing the voice of their internal wisdom, which can lead to feelings of powerlessness, isolation, or self-doubt. My specialty training in working with sex and sexuality allows me to support individuals or couples to develop greater comfort, intimacy, satisfaction, and the ability to talk about identity, as well as personal needs and preferences. Some may feel burdened by efforts to please others or prove themselves that overshadow knowing and communicating their own needs. Others may feel stuck, finding it hard to move forward with confidence. Therapy can help you to create a more holistic and balanced narrative of yourself or your relationship.

My style is authentic, and I bring warmth, humor, and realness as I listen empathically and deeply both for explicit and implicit patterns and experiences. While I do provide tools and skills that support better day to day functioning, the goal of an open-ended and exploratory process is to allow for you to internalize a new way of relating to yourself and others that feels transformative.