Approach to Therapy

Renata takes a collaborative approach when working with individuals, couples, and families by creating a plan that is unique to each person. She meets clients where they are and works with them to take a holistic look into their lives. Renata works systemically with her clients and looks at the self as well as connections with family, friends, and community. She strives to gently and safely challenge clients to push through struggles while gaining the new skills and resilience necessary to overcome difficulties. 

​When working with parents or families, Renata takes a more directive approach, which allows her to “join” the family in order to re-establish parent-child bonds, restructure the family hierarchy, improve communication, and assist in the development of new adaptive strategies. And in doing so, a new system develops; one that is unique to each family. 
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​Whether treatment is with an individual, couple or family,  change occurs by creating new connections. This crucial to sustainable change in that it allows for a more open and honest exploration of our most important relationships -- individually and with others. 

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Clinical Interests & Expertise

• Children, adolescents, and young adults

• Play therapy

• Families —attachment, behavioral issues, poor communication, and generational conflicts

• Major life transitions—entering adulthood, marriage, separation, divorce, reconciliation, becoming parents, and co-parenting

• Trauma and PTSD

• Depression and anxiety

• Crisis management

• Stress management and self-care

• Grief and loss

• Relationship issues —ADHD, life adjustments, infidelity, premarital counseling, parenting issues, and marital distress

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Education & Training

• BA in Psychology and Secondary Education in Spanish: University of Illinois in Chicago

• MA in Counseling Psychology with Marriage and Family Therapy concentration: Argosy University in Santa Ana

• Trained in various evidence-based practices: Trauma-Focused CBT, Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), Seeking Safety and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (Asist)

• Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Illinois and California​

• Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese

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Fun Facts About Renata

• Nature & wild animal lover

• Brazilian born, Chicago raised

• Trilingual (Portuguese, Spanish, English)

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Contact Renata

773-234-0765
Email: renata@lakeviewtherapygroup.com

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