About Jennifer
Jennifer Vandigo is a licensed clinical social worker with years of experience helping people work through stress, anxiety, depression, and relationship concerns. She offers a warm and direct style that focuses on helping people find their own answers and feel more confident in daily life. Jennifer earned her Master of Social Work at Arizona State University and lists her LCSW credential.
Her background includes roles in residential treatment and community-based work.
Background and approach
She has experience providing individual and group counseling in a program for teens involved with the justice system. She also served in the Peace Corps in Jamaica as a medical social worker and helped start a womens crisis center addressing domestic violence and sexual assault. Jennifer uses practical, approachable methods in sessions.
She blends client-centered conversation with cognitive and emotion-focused tools. That means she listens closely, then helps people try small changes and new ways of responding to upsetting thoughts and feelings. She commonly helps people cope with trauma and abuse, grief, addiction concerns, parenting strain, ADHD, and family-of-origin issues.
She also supports people facing life transitions, anger, low self-esteem, and questions about identity and relationships. People who like a compassionate, straightforward guide tend to fit her style. Jennifer emphasizes connection in the work and focuses on what is useful right now.
She aims to help people build skills they can use between sessions and to create a calmer, more manageable day-to-day life.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening without judgment and helping people find their own answers; it is useful for building self-understanding and trust. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at unhelpful thoughts and patterns and teaches practical techniques to change reactions and behaviors, which can help with anxiety, depression, and stress. Emotionally-Focused Therapy helps people understand and shift emotional responses in relationships, which can reduce conflict and deepen connection.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Jennifer will work with each person to choose and try methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. She checks in regularly about what is working and adjusts the plan together.
Online therapy offers several practical benefits. Video calls let people have a face-to-face conversation without travel. Phone sessions work well when a quieter call or lower bandwidth is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging can be useful for quick check-ins, brief coping support, or when writing feels easier than talking. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into work, family, and other responsibilities while keeping the focus on progress and real-world skills.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Parenting issues
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Trauma and abuse
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English