Maria Yakimchuk, ALMFT, CTP, cEFT Master, Associate Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Trauma Professional, Certified Emotional Freedom Technique Master

Maria is an Associate Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who provides individual therapy to children and adults, as well as couples and family therapy, both virtually and in the Northbrook office. Maria received her Master’s Degree in Psychology with a Marriage and Family Therapy Concentration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California.

Maria believes that her clients are their own best healers. The capacity for healing exists within every person and the job of a therapist is to help clients see the full picture of their true potential. Maria approaches therapy with a holistic approach. She skillfully blends the more traditional psychodynamic and systemic approaches, with newer somatic and mindfulness based approaches to engage both the mind and the body in the healing process. Maria is a Master Certified EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Practitioner, who uses EFT (also known as Tapping) in a gentle way to help clients recover from trauma. This approach is safe to use for adults, as well as children, and has been particularly effective for women in the perinatal period and those struggling with anxiety.

As an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist Maria helps couples navigate relationship challenges that inevitably come up for everyone. If you are struggling with effective communication, conflict resolution, and a loss of intimacy, Maria can provide you and your partner with tools to help you get to the place where you want to be as a couple. Maria focuses on helping couples build connection in a non-judgmental and open environment. It is never too late to create a healthy and fulfilling relationship.

Maria’s specialties are perinatal mental health, birth and childhood trauma, and family counseling, which includes the transition into parenting and its ensuing challenges that often lead to anxiety, depression, and burnout. In addition, Maria spent many years working with children who have ADHD and are on the autism spectrum and have helped families navigate this experience more adeptly.

Areas of Expertise and Focus:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Perinatal Mental Health (including postpartum mood disorders)
• Trauma/PTSD and C-PTSD
• Parenting Support
• Life Transitions
• ADHD (kids and adults)
• Self-esteem
• Wellness and stress management

Billing under the supervision of Haley Jossel, Maria is an in network provider with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois PPO.

Personal Statement

I’ve always felt a strong passion and curiosity for figuring out what shapes people into the unique individuals they are. Everyone’s story is unique and influenced by where they come from and their family history. Even though our stories have a lot of positive qualities, we can also face challenges that keep us stuck and unable to reach our fullest potential. This is where therapy can help us push past the obstacles and towards our innate gifts.