Adam Ginsburg, MA, LPC
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Master of Arts
Licensed Professional Counselor To make an appointment with Adam, please call 630-570-0050. You can also email Contact.OH@OakHeartCenter.com.
Specializes In:Faith-Based, Spirituality, Depression, Anxiety, Relationship Concerns, Chronic Pain, Grief, Life Transitions
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Professional Experience
Oh hi, didn’t see you there! Well, don’t just stand there looking all confuzzled and awkward. Come, warm yourself by the nourishing fire that is the experience section of my biography. So a bit about my professional life, aka, what I learned I wanted to be when I grow up when I grew up. Well, I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) at the time of this writing, having received my bachelor's degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago followed by gaining my master's degree in Clinical/Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University of Chicago, complete with a nice bow, like one of those oversized ones you see in car commercials during the holidays, which was a nice bonus if nothing else. I’m currently eligible to test for independent licensure (LCPC) and plan to have that process completed ever so soon, if for no other reason than to have that flex of an added consonant at the end of my name. Sorry, no relationship to Ruth Bader or Allen other than fondness so consider that question answered!
During school I was able to complete my practicum and internship through a local private practice, which was a significant experience that proved to be challenging in issues many of us encounter at some point in our lives surrounding matters such as boundaries, self-esteem, self-worth, and generally further shaping my worldview. My post school ventures have seen me steep heavily, like savory green tea, into the private practice world of therapy with a few different organizations that have continually held me to the oftentimes overwhelming standard of being nothing less than everything I’ve been created to be . . . don’t suppose you can relate to that at all as I’m certain I'm the only one who has ever felt that level of intensive, vulnerable pressure to be themselves. Nope, nope, nope :-)
During school I was able to complete my practicum and internship through a local private practice, which was a significant experience that proved to be challenging in issues many of us encounter at some point in our lives surrounding matters such as boundaries, self-esteem, self-worth, and generally further shaping my worldview. My post school ventures have seen me steep heavily, like savory green tea, into the private practice world of therapy with a few different organizations that have continually held me to the oftentimes overwhelming standard of being nothing less than everything I’ve been created to be . . . don’t suppose you can relate to that at all as I’m certain I'm the only one who has ever felt that level of intensive, vulnerable pressure to be themselves. Nope, nope, nope :-)
Specializations and Treatment Approach
I currently treat:
Faith Based and Spiritually seeking/questioning clients (clients looking for their faith background to be integrated into the treatment process, meaning seeking individuals, existential crises, etc.)
Depression
Anxiety
Relationship Concerns (divorce, separation, in relationship challenges concerning connection/disconnection, arguments, understanding of partner, etc.)
Chronic Pain (autoimmune conditions, cancers, unknown illness)
Grief and Loss (death, loss of relationships/meaning)
Significant life Transitions (retirement, divorce, job changes, relocation)
I fully get that this type of section of a biography and therapeutic approach has the complete and utter capacity to absolutely lose an audience as often times it can be overflowing with “insider terminology” and technical jargon that sounds impressive but lacks the requisite grounded understanding of an outsider being able to relate to the content. So when we talk about my specializations and treatment approach, it really begins with an understanding of who I am as a person, which we’ll plunge headlong into in the "About Me" section in further detail. My approach is basically to be someone who truly sees, hears, seeks to understand wholly and affirms and cherishes completely the individual who experiences the courage and vulnerability to effectively sit across from me, whether virtually or in-person.
I’m someone who doesn’t lose sight that the very process of entering into a counseling space can carry significant overwhelm and nerves. So I seek to have a genuine conversation with curiosity, authenticity and a level of forthright engagement where I can provide an opportunity to actually talk about what’s really going on in your life. As far as the technicals, I lean towards Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as a means to explore the inner world we’re experiencing. CBT helps us examine the relative helpful/unhelpful thought life we’re having and examine whether the things that we’re thinking about and telling ourselves have a value that is propelling us closer to our goals and ambitions or whether they are serving as a barrier to the life we’re chasing after. I also gravitate towards a narrative-based approach which looks at our lives in terms of stories. Many of these stories are repetitive things we tell ourselves which in and of themselves can create distance and place limitations on our capabilities, ambitions and desires. I oftentimes will challenge clients to examine their stories because many times there are narratives we’re carrying that we didn’t author and serve no purpose aside from keeping us feeling stuck, busted, and disgusted.
Admittedly, I’d call myself a bit of a story hacker as I have this unbelievable curiosity in getting to know and understand the stories each of us carries within ourselves as we navigate through the
challenges that life presents. Perhaps you’ve never heard this before or perhaps you have and didn’t believe it to be true, but your story carries immeasurable significance not in spite of the hardship that may oftentimes accompany it like some sort of outlier but directly because of it, having the potential to usher in a version of you that seems impossible.
Faith Based and Spiritually seeking/questioning clients (clients looking for their faith background to be integrated into the treatment process, meaning seeking individuals, existential crises, etc.)
Depression
Anxiety
Relationship Concerns (divorce, separation, in relationship challenges concerning connection/disconnection, arguments, understanding of partner, etc.)
Chronic Pain (autoimmune conditions, cancers, unknown illness)
Grief and Loss (death, loss of relationships/meaning)
Significant life Transitions (retirement, divorce, job changes, relocation)
I fully get that this type of section of a biography and therapeutic approach has the complete and utter capacity to absolutely lose an audience as often times it can be overflowing with “insider terminology” and technical jargon that sounds impressive but lacks the requisite grounded understanding of an outsider being able to relate to the content. So when we talk about my specializations and treatment approach, it really begins with an understanding of who I am as a person, which we’ll plunge headlong into in the "About Me" section in further detail. My approach is basically to be someone who truly sees, hears, seeks to understand wholly and affirms and cherishes completely the individual who experiences the courage and vulnerability to effectively sit across from me, whether virtually or in-person.
I’m someone who doesn’t lose sight that the very process of entering into a counseling space can carry significant overwhelm and nerves. So I seek to have a genuine conversation with curiosity, authenticity and a level of forthright engagement where I can provide an opportunity to actually talk about what’s really going on in your life. As far as the technicals, I lean towards Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as a means to explore the inner world we’re experiencing. CBT helps us examine the relative helpful/unhelpful thought life we’re having and examine whether the things that we’re thinking about and telling ourselves have a value that is propelling us closer to our goals and ambitions or whether they are serving as a barrier to the life we’re chasing after. I also gravitate towards a narrative-based approach which looks at our lives in terms of stories. Many of these stories are repetitive things we tell ourselves which in and of themselves can create distance and place limitations on our capabilities, ambitions and desires. I oftentimes will challenge clients to examine their stories because many times there are narratives we’re carrying that we didn’t author and serve no purpose aside from keeping us feeling stuck, busted, and disgusted.
Admittedly, I’d call myself a bit of a story hacker as I have this unbelievable curiosity in getting to know and understand the stories each of us carries within ourselves as we navigate through the
challenges that life presents. Perhaps you’ve never heard this before or perhaps you have and didn’t believe it to be true, but your story carries immeasurable significance not in spite of the hardship that may oftentimes accompany it like some sort of outlier but directly because of it, having the potential to usher in a version of you that seems impossible.
About Me
What are your professional and personal values?
A few that immediately spring to mind include:
Authenticity - the ability to be what I’d call a real person with complex emotional states and having the willingness to speak to them in full is one of the richest things I can offer up to both myself and clients alike.
Curiosity - I’m unapologetically fascinated by why we do the things we do, make the choices we make and live the lives we live all while asking the simplistic yet challenging question, “why?” 3 letters that can be so impactful in order to examine the motives behind the things we’re engaging within.
Transparency - It’s a great way of basically saying there’s a certain bluntness to me and a willingness to address matters as they are, independent of flowery language that feels good but ultimately feels hollow.
Boldness - I’m an emotional risk taker, believing fully there are no such thing as bad decisions as it’s not the decisions themselves that are bad, but often the perception of the relative desirability of the outcome that can be determined as good/bad. The decision is effectively neutral and made with the best information available at the time, so why not be bold and take some risks, knowing it’s the lesson that yields the greater return than the actual outcome in many cases?
Contentment - I know, such a culturally vile and heinous word! Yet I think there’s such beauty in contentment, as in the state of being fully satisfied, not necessarily railing against a change occurring, but being perfectly okay should nothing change.
Empathy - The willingness to understand within my own given limitations of experience the challenges and hardships another goes through is imperative to me. Let’s be real though, there are going to be limitations to my understanding having not lived your experience but perhaps parallels, but empathy extends that invitation to sit under YOUR learning tree and take in what you so generously have to offer from the instructor of your own life experience.
Faith - This is what makes all the other values not only valuable, but keeps them centered and in their good and proper place. This is THE one aspect that I’ve gained that can never go astray and can never be lost, oftentimes having to give up the things I couldn’t keep to preserve that which will never leave in my faith. Without this, I’m bankrupt in every way.
What are some adjectives you would use to describe yourself and why?
Ummmmmmm, LIT?!?!?! Alright, now that I’ve successfully and wholly alienated roughly 80% of readership, I’ll just keep digging myself deeper! I’d go with some of the items from the previous section in empathic, content, faith-filled, curious, someone who experiences fear but doesn’t serve that fear, resilient, unwavering, loyal, laid back, conversational, quick-witted and maybe one of the most real people you’ve sat with for better or worse, depending on your perspective.
Sure, I’m a therapist and I have these spiffy letters that follow my name that I suppose could be perceived as giving me status but at the end of the day, I’m a dude whose received this platform of which I don’t deserve to speak into the lives of people like yourself and can identify incompletely with their struggles and have this capacity to make them feel like their fully seen, endlessly adored, completely accepted and cherished and singularly unique as they are, not as they wish to be.
What led you to decide that you wanted to be a therapist?
Straight up? The immeasurable and soul crushing dissatisfaction of 5.5 years working in corporate America and knowing full well I was operating in a space where I was materially thriving and successful to the outside perspective but experiencing the intensive emptiness within my very heart of doing work that didn’t matter to me and did nothing to change other people’s experiences. It brings to mind the most wonderful definition I had heard of meaningful work, which was taking the raw materials we have - the leanings, the wirings and the natural proclivities we have and arranging them in a way that causes other people to thrive. Yeah, I wasn’t doing that and I felt the crushing weight of that meaninglessness each and every day until making a change. Remember that talk of being bold and blunt? Well, there you go!
What is your favorite quote/some of your favorite quotes?
Yikes, this could be anthological like The Lord of The Rings in length, but I’ll try to unsuccessfully be brief with this and fail spectacularly sooooooooooo:
“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” - Theodore Roosevelt
“Success is going failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
“You make a living out of what you get, but a life out of what you give.” - Winston Churchill
“We can only see in others what we so often have tasted ourselves.” - Jennie Allen
“There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” - Leonard Cohen
“Worry is a down payment on a problem you may never have.” - Joyce Meyer
“Suffering without meaning is despair, suffering with meaning is purpose.” - Viktor Frankl
“Disappointment can be a prison or a pathway.” - Dharius Daniels
“Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure.” - Tony Robbins
What’s the most profound, meaningful, or interesting thing you’ve learned or experienced as a mental health professional? Why do you love being a mental health professional?
I’m going to go super 30,000 ft. view with this and say that just generally, the resiliency and singular uniqueness that exists in each of us. The truth is, you’ve never met a normal person as normalcy often just gets confused for what’s common, but common doesn’t make things normal. Semantics aside, there’s a singular uniqueness to each of us that’s evident down to our very fingerprints as there’s no two matching sets of prints that exist. So within the mental health space, the immeasurable and oftentimes unspeakable privilege it is to be so thoroughly trusted to sit with and invest deeply into what oftentimes is THE most sensitive, sacred matters an individual is experiencing in their life is such this trusted platform that I cherish deeply and am hopeful that reflects in the relationships that I foster with those who sit across from me weekly as it’s something I actively am vigilant in not taking for granted.
A few that immediately spring to mind include:
Authenticity - the ability to be what I’d call a real person with complex emotional states and having the willingness to speak to them in full is one of the richest things I can offer up to both myself and clients alike.
Curiosity - I’m unapologetically fascinated by why we do the things we do, make the choices we make and live the lives we live all while asking the simplistic yet challenging question, “why?” 3 letters that can be so impactful in order to examine the motives behind the things we’re engaging within.
Transparency - It’s a great way of basically saying there’s a certain bluntness to me and a willingness to address matters as they are, independent of flowery language that feels good but ultimately feels hollow.
Boldness - I’m an emotional risk taker, believing fully there are no such thing as bad decisions as it’s not the decisions themselves that are bad, but often the perception of the relative desirability of the outcome that can be determined as good/bad. The decision is effectively neutral and made with the best information available at the time, so why not be bold and take some risks, knowing it’s the lesson that yields the greater return than the actual outcome in many cases?
Contentment - I know, such a culturally vile and heinous word! Yet I think there’s such beauty in contentment, as in the state of being fully satisfied, not necessarily railing against a change occurring, but being perfectly okay should nothing change.
Empathy - The willingness to understand within my own given limitations of experience the challenges and hardships another goes through is imperative to me. Let’s be real though, there are going to be limitations to my understanding having not lived your experience but perhaps parallels, but empathy extends that invitation to sit under YOUR learning tree and take in what you so generously have to offer from the instructor of your own life experience.
Faith - This is what makes all the other values not only valuable, but keeps them centered and in their good and proper place. This is THE one aspect that I’ve gained that can never go astray and can never be lost, oftentimes having to give up the things I couldn’t keep to preserve that which will never leave in my faith. Without this, I’m bankrupt in every way.
What are some adjectives you would use to describe yourself and why?
Ummmmmmm, LIT?!?!?! Alright, now that I’ve successfully and wholly alienated roughly 80% of readership, I’ll just keep digging myself deeper! I’d go with some of the items from the previous section in empathic, content, faith-filled, curious, someone who experiences fear but doesn’t serve that fear, resilient, unwavering, loyal, laid back, conversational, quick-witted and maybe one of the most real people you’ve sat with for better or worse, depending on your perspective.
Sure, I’m a therapist and I have these spiffy letters that follow my name that I suppose could be perceived as giving me status but at the end of the day, I’m a dude whose received this platform of which I don’t deserve to speak into the lives of people like yourself and can identify incompletely with their struggles and have this capacity to make them feel like their fully seen, endlessly adored, completely accepted and cherished and singularly unique as they are, not as they wish to be.
What led you to decide that you wanted to be a therapist?
Straight up? The immeasurable and soul crushing dissatisfaction of 5.5 years working in corporate America and knowing full well I was operating in a space where I was materially thriving and successful to the outside perspective but experiencing the intensive emptiness within my very heart of doing work that didn’t matter to me and did nothing to change other people’s experiences. It brings to mind the most wonderful definition I had heard of meaningful work, which was taking the raw materials we have - the leanings, the wirings and the natural proclivities we have and arranging them in a way that causes other people to thrive. Yeah, I wasn’t doing that and I felt the crushing weight of that meaninglessness each and every day until making a change. Remember that talk of being bold and blunt? Well, there you go!
What is your favorite quote/some of your favorite quotes?
Yikes, this could be anthological like The Lord of The Rings in length, but I’ll try to unsuccessfully be brief with this and fail spectacularly sooooooooooo:
“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” - Theodore Roosevelt
“Success is going failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
“You make a living out of what you get, but a life out of what you give.” - Winston Churchill
“We can only see in others what we so often have tasted ourselves.” - Jennie Allen
“There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” - Leonard Cohen
“Worry is a down payment on a problem you may never have.” - Joyce Meyer
“Suffering without meaning is despair, suffering with meaning is purpose.” - Viktor Frankl
“Disappointment can be a prison or a pathway.” - Dharius Daniels
“Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure.” - Tony Robbins
What’s the most profound, meaningful, or interesting thing you’ve learned or experienced as a mental health professional? Why do you love being a mental health professional?
I’m going to go super 30,000 ft. view with this and say that just generally, the resiliency and singular uniqueness that exists in each of us. The truth is, you’ve never met a normal person as normalcy often just gets confused for what’s common, but common doesn’t make things normal. Semantics aside, there’s a singular uniqueness to each of us that’s evident down to our very fingerprints as there’s no two matching sets of prints that exist. So within the mental health space, the immeasurable and oftentimes unspeakable privilege it is to be so thoroughly trusted to sit with and invest deeply into what oftentimes is THE most sensitive, sacred matters an individual is experiencing in their life is such this trusted platform that I cherish deeply and am hopeful that reflects in the relationships that I foster with those who sit across from me weekly as it’s something I actively am vigilant in not taking for granted.
Blogs:
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Okay, shut it down! Show’s legitimately over before it even began, as we haven’t even started rolling the trailer footage on things and yet you read the topic of this blog post and we’ve already spiraled beyond our means. Extraverts everywhere are shouting from the top of their already warmed up vocal cords, “SEE!! I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!!” Well...sorta....(to read more, click on the link above)
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It’s highly likely that upon reading the title of this endless musing, a very understandable and natural reaction would simply be, “Dang bruh . . . that’s . . . that’s just heavy.” Guilty as charged I suppose, though that doesn’t negate the necessity of looking at something like the topic of identity and giving it the adequate space it requires in daily living...(to read more, click on the link above)
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