Christina Chykirda

Hello there! My name is Christina and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in CT. I have been in the mental health field for 9 years and in the customer service field for over 15 years. I have a vast range of experience in different settings with all different types of clients. My experience includes working in: inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient. I have worked with many different types of issues/and disorders such as: depression; anxiety (obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety, phobias, and panic disorder); posttraumiatic stress disorder; trauma; veterans; grief and loss; bipolar; schizophrenia; attentive deficit hyperactive disorder; personality disorders; anger challenges; impulse control challenges; gambling; substance abuse; kleptomania; eating disorders; sex offenders; domestic violence; life transition challenges; and interpersonal relationship challenges. Life can be very challenging and don’t we all just wanna feel understood, validated, and supported? My therapy style is empathic, non-judgmental, supportive, and interactive. I like to work collaboratively with my clients to identify goals and work together to achieve them by assigning homework. I provide education on topics/disorders when the client does not have knowledge of it in attempts for them to gain more awareness into themselves to live a better quality of life. If we don’t understand something then how can we work on improving it?! I use a combination of approaches such as: cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, solution-focused therapy, strength-based therapy, and reality-based therapy. I believe therapy is a journey and if you are to really benefit from it, it should not be comfortable. With that said, another approach of mine is to challenge and encourage clients to face their fears and work through their difficult emotions/challenges without turning to unhealthy coping skills. This is not an easy task but I will do whatever I can to help support you and help in your journey to attain a better quality of life! I look forward to chatting and working with you. Godspeed!