About Johanna
Johanna Westin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 15 years of experience as a therapist. She greets each person with a calm, down-to-earth manner and focuses on practical steps people can use right away. She aims to create a respectful, nonjudgmental space where people can talk through what matters most to them.
Johanna has worked in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She has supported people through trauma, stress, anxiety, grief, and major life changes.
Background and approach
She also helps with parenting strain, career stress, relationship and communication problems, and issues like guilt, shame, and compassion fatigue. Her style is relaxed and straightforward. She starts from where a person is and builds from there.
Sessions often include goal-setting, skill-building, and simple tools to manage strong emotions and panic symptoms. Johanna uses approaches that center the person’s experience and teach new ways of coping. She may draw on mindfulness skills to reduce reactivity, cognitive techniques to shift unhelpful thoughts, and structured skills from dialectical behavior therapy to manage intense feelings.
For some trauma-related concerns she includes methods designed to reduce distress tied to painful memories. People who prefer practical guidance and a steady, warm presence may find her helpful. Johanna works with individuals to identify priorities and make small, sustainable changes.
She encourages realistic goals and celebrates each step forward.
Using practical therapy approaches online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and responding to each person's experience. It emphasizes empathy and collaboration so the person feels heard and choices guide the work; this helps with self-esteem, life changes, and relationship concerns.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions. It teaches simple exercises to challenge unhelpful thoughts and build new habits, which can reduce anxiety, panic, and depressive symptoms.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, offers concrete skills for managing intense emotions and improving communication. Skills include emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and better interpersonal boundaries, which are useful for anger, panic, and relationship conflicts.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with the person about goals and preferences and suggest methods that fit those needs. Decisions about techniques happen together and can change as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is good for longer therapy sessions and visual connection, while phone calls use less bandwidth and can fit a work break. Live chat and text messaging work well for quick check-ins, short coaching, or when typing feels easier than speaking. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and let people choose the format that feels most comfortable.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also works with
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English