Individual Therapy

Individual Therapy

General Approach

With over 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist, Dr. Mike McNulty has helped hundreds of individuals like you achieve positive change and growth across all areas of life. His approach is compassionate, intuitive, and collaborative. He integrates psychoanalytic psychotherapy and evidence-based forms of care. Together, you’ll explore past and present challenges, identify self-defeating patterns, and set goals for a happier, healthier, and more meaningful life.

Specialties

Relationships

  • As a Certified Gottman Therapist, Dr. McNulty brings a world-renowned, research-based approach to helping people navigate their most important connections—whether with partners, family, friends, or colleagues.
  • Individual Coaching for Relationships
  • You don’t always need a partner present to improve your relationship. If you are struggling in a marriage or long-term partnership but your partner is unwilling to attend therapy, Dr. McNulty can work with you individually to:
  • Understand Relationship Dynamics: Gain clarity on what to expect in a healthy partnership.
  • Navigate Conflict: Learn proven strategies to manage common struggles and communication breakdowns.
  • Break Cycles: Identify personal patterns that may be hindering your connections with others.
  • Strengthen Bonds: Build the emotional intelligence needed to foster deeper intimacy and mutual respect.
  • Whether you are looking to save a marriage, improve workplace dynamics, or simply understand yourself better within your social circle, Dr. McNulty provides the tools to help you thrive in every area of your life.

Neurodiversity

  • Expert Support for Neurodiversity: Dr. McNulty specializes in helping individuals and couples navigate life with ADHD, dyslexia, and autism spectrum disorder.
  • Understanding Brain Differences: Therapy focuses on helping you understand how your brain works differently than the general population.
  • Balancing Challenges and Gifts: The process involves identifying specific hurdles while considering ways to compensate for challenges and build upon your unique gifts.
  • Life and Relationship Impact: Dr. McNulty helps you examine the impact of neurodivergence on your most important relationships and daily life.
  • Healing and Self-Esteem: Treatment includes healing from self-esteem issues and emotional trauma that can often result from living with neurodivergence in a neurotypical world.

Stress

  • Navigating Chronic & Transitional Stress
  • Whether you are facing long-term chronic stress or the upheaval of a major life transition, these challenges can feel overwhelming. Dr. McNulty is widely recognized for his ability to guide clients through their most complex and difficult situations.
  • A Psychodynamic Approach to Stress
  • Understanding the "what" of your stress is only the first step. Dr. McNulty helps you uncover the source and "why" behind your tension. Using a psychodynamic perspective, he works with you to:
  • Uncover Hidden Triggers: Explore why specific people or unique situations feel particularly taxing for you.
  • Gain Deep Insight: Understand how underlying psychological forces—often rooted in earlier experiences—impact your current emotional reactions.
  • Develop Authentic Coping Strategies: Move beyond temporary fixes to establish lasting ways to manage pressure and reclaim your sense of agency.
  • By transforming these insights into action, Dr. McNulty empowers you to navigate stressful environments with clarity and confidence.

Anxiety and Depression

  • Expert Support for Persistent Anxiety or Depression: Dr. McNulty specializes in helping individuals who experience ongoing anxiety or depression, even when external stressors have subsided.
  • Psychodynamic Framework: He guides clients through an introspective process to identify how past experiences influence present feelings and behaviors.
  • Deep Psychological Insight: This approach helps individuals understand the root sources of their anxieties on a deeper level.
  • Empowerment and Resilience: By gaining a deeper understanding of their own psychologies, clients are empowered to manage and decrease anxiety, leading to improved coping skills and long-term resilience.
  • Cognitive Behavior Techniques:  Dr. McNulty utilizes cognitive behavior techniques to help clients cope. 
  • Holistic Health Commitment: Dr. McNulty integrates comprehensive self-care into his practice, including exercise, nutrition, and stress management to ensure sustained emotional well-being.

Loss

  • Compassionate Support for Loss: Dr. McNulty provides a safe space for those navigating the profound impact of loss, whether it be a loved one, a relationship, or a significant life transition.
  • Normalizing the Grief Process: Therapy focuses on understanding the wide range of emotions—such as numbness, anger, and deep sadness—as natural responses to loss.
  • A Trusted Therapeutic Relationship: Healing begins by establishing a secure connection where you can share your experience without judgment.
  • Integrating the Loss: The process involves working through distressing memories and feelings to help you move from acute pain toward a place of meaningful remembrance.
  • Restoring Emotional Balance: Dr. McNulty helps you identify ways to manage the physical and emotional toll of grief, focusing on self-care and finding a path forward that honors your experience.

Trauma and PTSD

Events like loss, abuse, accidents, and illness can leave a lasting impact. You might experience numbness, distressing memories, or difficulty trusting others. Healing is possible through a specialized, supportive process

  • A Trusted Therapeutic Relationship: Building a safe foundation for your recovery.
  • Targeted Psychotherapy: Using evidence-based methods to address specific emotional marks.
  • Gradual Exposure: Safely processing memories and feelings at your own pace.
  • Mindful Somatic Monitoring: Learning to track and regulate bodily sensations.
  • EMDR Therapy: Utilizing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing to reduce the intensity of past trauma.

Ready to take the next step? 

Contact Dr. Mike McNulty, PhD, LCSW, LICSW

 

 

For further information on the Couples Workshop, please contact:
Michael McNulty, PhD    -    MikeMcNultyPhD@gmail.com

Phone:  847-736-5238

The Chicago Relationship Center 
708 Church Street, Suite 258
Evanston, IL 60201 

Gottman Couples Therapy

Serving the Chicago Metropolitan area with offices located in Evanston, IL. and Highland Park, IL., The Chicago Relationship Center provides individual counseling services and psychotherapy. Locally for counseling and therapy, both offices serve the counties of Cook County, Lake County, and DuPage County and the Chicago neighborhoods and surrounding communities including Waukegan, North Chicago, Grayslake, Wauconda, Mundelein, Libertyville, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Vernon Hills, Highwood, Lincolnshire, Lake Zurich, Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Wheeling, Highland Park, Northbrook, Winnetka, Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village, Des Plains, Glenview, Evanston, Park Ridge, West Ridge, Norwood Park, Bartlett, Roselle, Itasca, Bloomingdale, Addison, Franklin Park, North Side, Uptown, Lake View, Logan Square, Northlake, Elmhurst, Lombard, the Lower West Side, Cicero, Brookfield, La Grange, Downers Grove, Wheaton, West Chicago, and Carol Stream, Illinois.