Emily Taylor offers clients a compassionate place to feel seen, heard, and supported in their healing process. Emily believes feelings are valid and worth sharing, and she values the privilege of exploring what makes each person unique, including the life experiences that have shaped them.

Emily works to create a safe, nonjudgmental space where clients can share their stories, gain insight, and better understand and accept themselves. She is devoted to collaborating with clients to make sure therapy is meeting their needs in session while also helping them evaluate what kind of support, skills, and care they need outside of session.

Who I Work With

• Individuals seeking support for OCD, anxiety, perfectionism, self-esteem, trauma, or depression
• Clients working through family dynamics, relationship issues, boundaries, communication, or generational trauma
• People recovering from narcissistic abuse or processing difficult relational experiences
• Adolescents, adults, families, and groups, based on Emily’s experience across treatment settings
• Parents seeking support, guidance, psychoeducation, or coaching around family needs and stressors

My Approach to Therapy

Emily’s approach begins with a holistic lens. She works to understand each client’s unique qualities, identities, and life experiences so therapy can be tailored to the person in front of her. Her work incorporates Person-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure Response and Prevention Therapy (ERP), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Attachment Theory, Strength-Based Therapy, and Behavioral Activation.

Person-Centered Therapy supports Emily’s belief that each person has the ability to change and grow. CBT helps clients identify and shift negative thoughts and distortions that affect feelings and behaviors. ERP, a type of CBT, is especially relevant for OCD and anxiety because it involves gradually confronting thoughts, images, objects, or situations that drive fears and obsessions while reducing compulsive responses over time.

DBT helps clients hold a both/and perspective and learn skills that support acceptance and change. Behavioral Activation examines how behaviors influence emotions and supports clients in re-engaging with activities that may have been avoided. Emily also uses an attachment-informed and strengths-based perspective to help clients understand patterns, build insight, and identify resources they can use in their daily lives.

What Clients Can Expect

Clients can expect Emily to be compassionate, collaborative, and attentive to their evolving needs. Therapy may include space to talk openly, learn skills, explore identity and patterns, strengthen emotional regulation, and practice tools for anxiety, OCD, depression, trauma, or relationship stress.

Emily’s background in higher levels of care has helped her confidently identify safety concerns, support emotionally dysregulated clients, and use crisis stabilization and de-escalation skills when needed. Her approach remains warm and empowering, helping clients feel supported as they work toward greater understanding, acceptance, and growth.

Areas of Focus

• OCD counseling in Chicago
• Exposure Response and Prevention Therapy (ERP)
• Anxiety and perfectionism
• Self-esteem and self-acceptance
• Trauma and generational trauma
• Narcissistic abuse recovery
• Family dynamics and parent support
• Relationship issues, boundaries, and communication
• Depression and substance use concerns
• Adolescents, adults, families, and groups

Background and Personal Details

Emily is a graduate of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where she earned her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology in 2020. She received her undergraduate degree in Arts from Columbia College Chicago in 2015.

Emily has worked with individuals, adults, adolescents, families, and groups. She has experience in partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, leading psychoeducation groups, process groups, parent coaching and support groups, and one-on-one therapy. In her free time, Emily enjoys time with her son, family moments, audiobooks, podcasts, and movement such as dance, yoga, and exercise. Her background as a cheerleading and dance coach helped shape her passion for supporting adolescents with family issues and life stressors.

Closing Invitation

To learn more about OCD counseling or individual therapy with Emily, reach out through Ace Counseling Group or schedule a session when you feel ready.