Lynn Willard

Lynn Willard <[email protected]>

6:24 PM (2 minutes ago)

to me

Thanks for taking the time to read about my background! I may be one of the oldest therapists in this platform, but with 33 years of clinical experience and about 10 years of child welfare work, I believe the knowledge, experience and skills I have gained over the years outweigh my age when it comes to helping clients. I received a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Spanish from Illinois State University and started a career in providing services to Spanish-speaking clients in the Peoria, Illinois area. From 1983 to 1990 I worked for Catholic Social Services (CSS), initially in the La Casa de Santa Maria Program, then in the adoption program. While providing services to children in the process of transitioning from foster care to adoption, my passion for adoption and a desire to help children affected by sexual abuse evolved. In 1992, I went back to school and earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois Urbana and accepted a position with Lutheran Social Services Inc. (LSSI) in the sexual abuse program. During this time, I began to formulate a plan to open a child welfare agency, specializing in two areas - child sexual abuse and adoption.

In November of 1992, I founded a non-profit organization in central Illinois, ABC Counseling & Family Services, a non-profit child welfare agency that provided adoption services and counseling services for children affected by sexual abuse. I was the Executive Director for 33 years, and during that time always maintained a counseling caseload. My greatest joy in life, in addition to my marriage and raising three wonderful children, was the time I spent building an agency that helped grieving families affected by infertility and families affected by child sexual abuse.

My approach to therapy is based on what the client needs, and to figure out what the client needs, assessment is crucial. Building a solid relationship with the client is essential and cannot be rushed. For 33 years I primarily worked with child victims of sexual abuse and children with sexual behavior problems. I used mostly trauma-based therapy with victims of child abuse, but because many of my clients were young, and a child's natural environment is play, I also used play therapy techniques. With child offenders, the immediate goal in therapy was to stop the sexually offensive behaviors, and I used cognitive behavioral therapy and family systems approaches.

For the past few years, I have been working primarily with teens, young adults, middle aged adults and the elderly who struggle with depression, anxiety, PTSD, addictions, and grief and loss. Though I use CBT, I like to include other therapeutic models such as psychodynamic, trauma based CBT, Solution Focused Therapy, and sometimes art therapy.

What to expect in the first session: 1) everyone is a little nervous 2) the therapist is not going to judge you, no matter what 3) the more you share, the more your therapist and you can figure out what to work on and 4) you are building a relationship with your therapist, and this does not hppen in one session!