About Kendra
Kendra Spiva meets people where they are and helps them find clearer footing during hard times. She focuses on practical support for stress, anxiety, grief, self-esteem problems, intimacy concerns, and major life changes. Kendra is a licensed clinical social worker - LCSW - practicing in Illinois and brings six years of professional experience to her work.
Her style centers on respectful, down-to-earth conversation. She listens first, then tailors sessions to each person’s needs.
Background and approach
Sessions move at a pace the client chooses and focus on small, doable steps toward goals like better mood, clearer boundaries, or improved communication. Kendra uses tools from evidence-informed approaches to help people notice unhelpful patterns and try new options. She draws on acceptance and commitment ideas, cognitive tools for changing thoughts and behaviors, and mindfulness skills to reduce reactivity.
Attachment-informed thinking helps when relationships and closeness are part of the concern. In practice she mixes these approaches with a client-centered attitude. That means the person’s goals guide the work and interventions are practical and relevant.
Kendra also pays attention to life circumstances such as caregiving, chronic illness, or blended family dynamics when they affect well-being. She works with a range of challenges connected to abandonment, communication problems, divorce, aging concerns, and more. Kendra aims to create a calm, focused space where people can try new ways of coping and move toward clearer, more stable routines and relationships.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on noticing thoughts and values, then choosing actions that move a person toward what matters. It can help with anxiety, low motivation, and coping with loss. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and teaches techniques to change unhelpful patterns for issues like stress and self-esteem. Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple attention skills to reduce reactivity and improve emotional regulation for things like anxiety and grief.Finding the right approach is treated as a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals and preferences, try methods that fit those goals, and adjust over time. Clients are invited to give feedback so the work stays focused and practical.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when visual cues matter. Phone sessions work well if a quieter connection or lower bandwidth is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging let people check in between sessions or fit short conversations into a busy day. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent around work, caregiving, or other commitments.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 6 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English