Meet Ryan

I am uniquely qualified to support members of the LGBTQ community in achieving their goals. Before joining WPA, I worked for two years in a local LGBTQ-focused private practice, where I had the opportunity to provide individual and relationship counseling primarily to members of the LGBTQ community. In addition, I trained at and graduated from the Sexual Orientation and Gender Institute (SOGI) at the Center on Halsted. Lastly, I am an avid researcher with experience in the areas of interpersonal relationships, intimate partner violence, sexual identity, and LGBTQ mental health. I formerly worked as a Research Project Coordinator within the IMPACT Program at Northwestern University’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH).

As a therapist, I work from a relational perspective that believes in the healing power of the therapeutic relationship to help clients achieve their goals. You can receive therapy from (almost) anyone, but the sense of trust, warmth, and comfort (or sometimes discomfort) you experience with a therapist can be the deciding factor between significant change and desired positive growth. To benefit those under my care, I am devoted to creating an affirmative, empathic, and understanding relationship that balances what my clients often refer to as my "challenging" feedback and "bluntness" in therapy.

In my clinical work, I avoid a directive role in sessions. You and I begin by developing a “road map” together of what you’re looking to address in therapy, which may include areas you would like to explore, challenges you’re facing, or goals that you bring in. We will use this to guide our joint “road trip”, where you are in the driver’s seat for sessions, deciding the direction, and I am in the passenger seat, helping us to navigate through the speed bumps and obstacles that come along. Along the way, we will seek to empower you to voice your experiences, derive insight and meaning from your struggles, and receive the support and practical feedback needed to thrive in the face of challenges, both large and small.

Build a relationship with you, because you feel you can’t do this alone, and you should not have to.

Seek to understand you and take the info you give me, with my expertise, to truly understand why you’re in pain

I will help you to learn ways that you can manage the pain and heal where we are able to

I’ll be direct with you, I’ll speak to you as a person

I will provide you with new communication skills, different ways to manage your distress, and we will work to understand your boundaries.

You will learn to revise old stories that no longer work for you

I am always approaching clients from a place of kindness with an eye for places where we can challenge the parts that are not working for you anymore.

You will learn to manage ambiguity

You will feel more stable, settled

You will experience meaningful change

You will have clarity about your needs and how to get those met

You will learn new ways to communicate and express yourself

We will work so you can feel heard

You will feel safe and comfortable to ask for you what need

You will be to identify your own action and inaction and how this impacts your well-being

M.A. in Clinical Professional Psychology (Counseling Practice)

Roosevelt University

B.A. Psychology

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign