Ryan Watters

I'm an LCSW and CADC based in the Chicago area, and I've practiced in Illinois for the past 4 years since graduating from the University of Chicago's Crown School of Social Work in 2022. I work with folks who are curious about exploring their identity, relationships, substance use patterns, or anything else they feel is preventing them from living as meaningful and fulfilling a life as they'd like. My style is collaborative and direct: I'll meet you where you are, but I'll also gently push when it's useful. Whether you're working through something specific or just feel stuck, my goal is to help you build a clearer sense of what matters to you and how to move toward it.

My approach is grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which encourages us to welcome in discomfort in the short-term in service of decreasing suffering in the long-term. I also pull from Internal Family Systems (IFS) to explore the different parts of ourselves that can pull us in competing directions, Motivational Interviewing (MI) to help clients move through ambivalence and toward change at their own pace, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to build practical skills around distress tolerance and emotion regulation. Together, these frameworks let me meet clients where they are and tailor the work to what's most useful for them.

In our first session, my main goal is to get to know you, including what brought you in, what you're hoping to work on, and what's felt helpful or unhelpful in the past. We'll also talk through logistics and what working together might look like moving forward, so you can leave with a clearer sense of whether it feels like a good fit. I aim to create a warm, welcoming, and supportive environment, and this first session is your first taste of that.