Ashley Johnnies, LCSW

Ashley Johnnies is a licensed clinical social worker with five years of practice in Illinois. She focuses on practical help for stress, anxiety, trauma, anger, and depression. Ashley aims to support people who want clearer coping skills and steadier days. She believes each person knows their own story and brings useful strengths to therapy. Sessions focus on building skills and noticing patterns that get in the way. Ashley listens closely and helps people pick small changes they can try between sessions. Her work often includes talking through relationship and family concerns, grief, intimacy issues, and parenting strain. She also pays attention to challenges like abandonment, adoption and foster care matters, body image, codependency, and caregiver stress. This range lets her tailor conversations to what matters most for each person. Ashley uses a mix of approaches that fit different needs. She draws on cognitive behavioral ideas to spot unhelpful thinking, and she uses client-centered methods to keep sessions grounded in the person’s priorities. Mindfulness and emotion-focused techniques are used when calming strong feelings or rebuilding connections is the focus. Clients can expect straightforward suggestions and practice tasks between meetings. The pace is collaborative and respectful, not rushed. The goal is to create steady, usable changes that fit real life.

How therapy methods translate to online care

CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors to reduce symptoms like anxiety and depression. Sessions often include exercises and homework to practice new skills between meetings.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, teaches people to notice difficult thoughts and feelings while moving toward valued actions. This approach can help with avoidance, grief, and persistent worry.

Client-centered therapy emphasizes listening and supporting a person's own goals. The therapist offers empathy and reflection so people can clarify what matters most to them.

Finding the right approach is part of working together. Ashley will talk with each person about their goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. She adapts techniques over time so the plan fits the person rather than forcing one method.

Online therapy is offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make scheduling easier. Video is good for full sessions and visual cues, phone works when bandwidth is limited, live chat suits quick check-ins, and messaging lets people share thoughts between meetings. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and keep continuity when travel or time constraints come up.