Chris Edwards, MSW, LCSW

Chris offers an identity-affirming space for individuals struggling with depression, anxiety, relationship issues, life transitions, trauma, and other life stresses. He works to meet his clients where they’re at, respect their needs and boundaries, and to understand clients as much as possible from their own perspective. Chris’s work acknowledges that many identities, bodies, and behaviors are marginalized by society, and healing often includes exploring and addressing how we’re impacted by these contexts.

As a strengths-based, trauma-informed, and developmentally sensitive therapist, Chris acknowledges how the skills that have helped people survive in life are just as important as exploring their struggles. Likewise, he has specialized training in understanding how the human brain and body can be shaped by life experiences—good and bad. People’s experiences can influence them in ways that help them focus and feel connected, or can instead leave them feeling anxious, unmotivated, or even detached from their lives. Some of the most powerful lessons we learn in life come from our personal experiences. Because of all this, Chris offers services ranging from talk therapies to more experiential practices like art and writing, meditation and mindfulness, and mind/body practices for understanding and regulating our stress response systems.

Chris Edwards has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago, focusing on how the body and brain develop over our lifespans, and how our experiences (especially overwhelming ones) shape us. He has done training in working with grief and loss, exploring gender and sexuality, and considering how our material circumstances can influence our mental health. Chris also has a Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and previously had a career as a teacher of writing and communication. Because of this work, he values the power of language, both written and spoken, as a tool that creates and influences our life narratives—and how we are able to understand ourselves.

He has also completed a fellowship at Lifeworks Psychotherapy, focusing on providing psychotherapy services that affirm and support members of LGBTQIA, kink, and polyamorous communities. Most recently, Chris worked with clients struggling with alcohol/substance-use and mental health at Foundations Recovery Network Chicago. His work there helped him to better understand the kinds of challenges faced in alcohol and substance use, for those involved and for their loved ones. He learned therapy methods designed to help clients make sense of and accept their circumstances, and other methods focused on cognitive and behavioral change, all of which are important for helping clients strive toward their goals—even when they’re feeling stuck or unmotivated.

Chris is also Phase 1 certified in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, which is a developmentally sensitive and neurobiology-informed approach to clinical problem solving. This model considers how our bodies are impacted by our environments and how these play a role in our wellbeing and behaviors. Chris uses this model to assess clients’ needs in various domains in their lives (i.e. social, emotional, cognitive, and physical), and then provide recommendations for therapeutic, educational, and enrichment activities that match the needs and strengths of each individual.