Madelyn Buxton

I received my MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from The Chicago School of Professional Counseling in 2023. Before that, I was working in the entertainment industry and pursuing comedy, and got my BFA in Performing Arts from Savannah College of Art and Design. I got "the call" to do mental health counseling work after some of my extended family members received late in life diagnoses of ADHD, and after years of my own battle what I would later learn are Fibromyalgia, Fructose Malabsorption, and Ankylosing Spondylitis. Before I was a Licensed Professional Counselor, I was working in the entertainment industry with a focus on comedy, improv, and writing. I like to take some of that humor and creativity into my counseling work with my clients. These personal experiences have led me to my areas of clinical focus in my work with adult individuals: ADHD, anxiety, depression, and chronic health issues. I am also a certified ADHD Life Coach, and Certified Therapeutic Game Master.

I really like to be flexible in my therapeutic work with clients and use an eclectic approach in order to tailor my work to the needs of my clients. Not every modality, tool, strategy, technique, etc., is going to be the right fit for every person, so being adaptable to the holistic needs of my clients is important to me. In a way I suppose that makes my approach person-centered, but I also enjoy cognitive, postmodern, and existential approaches to counseling as well. For example, some clients may need more cognitive behavioral approaches to therapy, while others may need more solution focused, or existential methods to reach their therapeutic goals. Some clients like leaving therapy with a lot of homework, and some clients don't want to do much homework. It's all valid and there is no right or wrong approach to get you on the path to living the life you want. Regardless of the techniques I use in therapy, I like to incorporate humor, and strive to create a safe, nonjudgmental space for my clients to feel comfortable enough to explore what it is they need.

In our first session, I will do a biopsychosocial assessment. That's just a fancy way of saying that in our first session I will ask you some general questions about you and what's going on that brought you to seek therapy. Together we will create some goals for your therapy journey. Your first session, or first couple of sessions depending on how deep we explore in different areas of your life, is about getting to know you, what's going on, and building trust. The first question I'll ask you- and it's okay if you don't like it, we can find a different question- will be, "Where would you like to start?"