Eric Lindquist, LCPC

Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor(LCPC) with 30 years' experience working within multiple communities on Chicago's Southside.

Psychotherapy can benefit in two general ways:
1. When we experience a crisis, such as the loss of a loved one, a loss of income, or the loss of our trust in someone, we can be emotionally shocked. It is sometimes said that therapy can be a means of absorbing that shock, until one eventually recovers. Therapy does not so much change one's life as help to cope better with the life one is faced with.
2. Even when there is not a crisis, there can be some areas that distract from a quality life. These can include disturbing memories, someone during a typical day that you find yourself avoiding, an unpleasant topic that you agonize whether to bring up, or deciding how long to stay with an employer. Does one want to change what is occurring presently? Or to become more at peace with it? Therapy can be a calm place to decide those serious questions, and anything comparable.
The technique that I use is based upon the individual who is sitting across from me. An approach that may be ill-suited for one client, might perfectly fit the next. So, in addition to being a therapist, I strive to be a tailor.

A frequently asked question is "How many sessions should I come? or how often?" A unique client is best able to decide the number of sessions and/or the time between sessions. Therapy is meant to enhance one's life, not complicate it. For some, that session may be the single hour in week/month that will allow for that.

Along with my four years in private-practice, I have worked three years in a psychiatric hospital as well as a child welfare agency(parttime). And for 25 years, I worked for the Chicago Department of Public Health. However noble the mission of government, working for it at any level has its complications. Those two decades have helped me to identify with postal workers, correctional officers, paramedics, teachers, case managers, and any nonprofit employee where the agency is dependent on governmental subsidies.