Meet Sara Watts
LCPC, LMHC, C.C.C., CADC
Welcome to my Private Practice. I live on the north side of Chicago and attained both my business degree and clinical masters degree in Chicagoland. I am licensed in Illinois, New York, and Canada. My physical office is located in the downtown area of Evanston, IL, just a short walk from Northwestern University.
I hold the following clinical credentials:
Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) - IL
Certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor (CADC) - IL
Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) - NY
Canadian Certified Counselor (C.C.C.) - Canada
BTTI-Certified (an intensive training program in the treatment of OCD and related disorders completed with the Behavior Therapy Training Institute)
I formerly served as a board member for the IAEDP Midwest Chapter and the Women’s Association for Addiction Treatment Chicago Chapter.
My Approach
Every client is different, with both unique needs and unique treatment responses.
My goal is to meet my carefully admitted clients exactly where they are upon their therapeutic point of entry, and to create a treatment plan primarily guided by each of my client’s respective stages of readiness, willingness, and motivation.
Being respectfully direct, establishing a strong therapeutic alliance, and easing early therapy nerves are clinical strengths of mine. I also value incorporating and finding humor when and where appropriate and helpful.
I am a perpetual learner while also being a treatment provider, and my greatest therapeutic education has come from my clients.
My Background
Prior to attaining my clinical masters degree, I first utilized my business degree primarily working in management roles within various sectors. Managing teams led me to the knowingness of wanting to exclusively work with the individual’s respective personalities, strengths, vulnerabilities, and struggles instead of overseeing all of these variables among a collective group simultaneously.
The combination of both my business and clinical degrees was highly compatible with my first post-masters position working in a hybrid marketing and clinical care role, operating as the intermediary point of contact between client referents and the treatment team members working within higher levels of care.
For several years, I specifically served as the first point of contact for the counseling departments within any high school, college, or university in North Cook and Lake counties, providing routine level of care substance use evaluations for adolescents and young adults, treatment admission and coordination, and prevention and educational services.
Over the course of my clinical journey I have worked in a variety of settings and roles, including intake/assessments, a hospital-based outpatient center, and all higher levels of care (IOP, PHP, Residential). I have worked with a diverse spectrum of clinical needs spanning all ages, levels of functioning, and acuity.
Working in environments from large corporations to the not-for-profit sector has been helpful in supporting individuals exploring professional transition, navigating ambivalence, and/or experiencing imbalance around work, personal life, or honoring a values-driven trajectory.
My Top Values
And More…
When I am not supporting my clients, I can reliably be found outdoors, walking my (practically perfect) dog Una Mae, enjoying the Chicago lakefront, and connecting with family, friends, and neighborhood community.
I enjoy volunteering, watching my publicly undisclosed NFL team every game, planting and admiring flowers, decorating the exterior of my home for most major holidays, growing my brain, appreciating good food (with gratitude, prepared by others), marveling over true crime content, finding new music and enjoying live music, seeing live comedy and theatre, and devising my next fun or challenging endeavor.
Lastly, I especially awaken and genuinely love the seasons of fall and winter, so I like to offer some optimism for my clients who struggle during these sometimes difficult Midwest seasons.
Therapeutic Mission
My primary goal in the therapist role is to best support your identified goals, and ultimately to shift and expand your relationship with painful symptoms that are creating unnecessary struggle and suffering in your brain, work, life, or relationships.
I will help to identify other potential areas of focus that may be interfering with your goals and symptom reduction, and offer them for your consideration. And, I always strive to keep your priorities, my priorities.
I promise to continually work to stay updated with current clinical research and therapeutic approaches that can potentially help where others have been ineffective.
I promise to continually work to recognize and challenge my implicit (and unwanted) biases.
If either you or I determine we are not the most compatible therapeutic fit, I will provide my best referral options to help support the meeting of your specific therapeutic needs and preferences.
Collaboration
I am not only collaborative with my clients, but also with a wide network of team-oriented professionals who provide integral and distinctive adjunctive services. A team approach exponentially increases positive treatment outcomes. I prioritize the development of an integrative treatment team as a part of my treatment approach.
My client teams may consist of any combination of the following members: Psychiatrists specialized in Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Eating Disorders, Addictions, ADHD, and Mood Disorders; Registered Dieticians specialized in eating disorders, auto-immune conditions, and substance use disorders; Weight-inclusive Physicians; Functional Medicine Physicians; Educational Consultants; Clinical and Medical teams working within higher levels of care, including IOP, PHP, Residential, and Supportive/Transitional Living; Support Group Facilitators; and Therapy Group Facilitators.
Diversity & Equity Inclusion Prioritization
I maintain a special interest and wealth of experience in providing diversity-inclusive treatment. I affirmatively welcome all individuals across the span of race, ethnicity, age, gender, body size, neurodiversity, ability, sexual orientation, and faith orientation.
I prioritize upholding a diverse client caseload, in alignment with both my personal and therapeutic values.
I recognize that therapeutic costs are specifically prohibitive within the diversity of socioeconomic status. With this being openly acknowledged as a reality and a potential barrier to accessing care with me, I do welcome all therapy inquiries regardless of socioeconomic status. At no charge, I will provide a comprehensive list of accessible therapeutic resources that accept medicaid, and/or offer competitive sliding scale services to accommodate your current financial position.
In an intentional effort to promote socioeconomic diversity in my practice, I participate in the CARES program which provides fully sponsored therapy services to un-insured and under-insured minors through grant funding. You can find more information about this program here - https://referralgps.com/
What are Sara’s Qualifications and Specializations?
I have worked in the field of mental health for 15 years and completed approximately 4000 hours of direct clinician supervision and 1500 hours of continuing education training over the course of my clinical career. I have been intensively trained across the following treatment approaches: CBT, ACT, DBT, ERP, and also incorporate adjunctive training acquired around Motivational Interviewing, Psychodynamic Theory, and Written Exposure Therapy.
I became BTTI-certified in 2022 and attained 40 current BDD & OCD-specific continuing education hours via my attendance of both the 2025 BDD conference & 2025 IOCDF conferences. I also participate in ongoing consultation relationships and groups, supervision as indicated, as well as resource-sharing threads.
I have intentionally sought out specialized training in the following treatment areas of focus:
Anxiety Disorders including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder and phobias;
Eating Disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, and OSFED
Mood Disorders, including major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and emotion dysregulation
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder & BDD
Substance Use Disorders
Co-Occurring Trauma Disorders including PTSD & C-PTSD*
* Trauma disorder diagnoses among my clients must be secondary to other diagnoses. If I determine that trauma is the primary diagnosis with acute treatment need, I will provide trauma-specialized referrals for you.
To My Potential Clients
It can be daunting to reach out for support, especially to someone you’ve never met. And, it is also an opportunity: to be seen, heard, and known for who you truly are, without the interference of predisposed biases, judgments, or assumptions.
All of us experience struggles, trials, setbacks, and seasons of exploration that impact our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. We are not intended to navigate these challenges alone.
Our work together is first and foremost guided by your unique individual self and therapeutic needs. I understand that your nuanced journey of lived experience has led you to be as you are, right here, right now.
I genuinely admire your openness and willingness to consider therapy as a potentially supportive space to accompany you on the next leg of your journey. I am honored to work in the helping field and to support clients wherever they are, and to the best of my ability.
I offer a non-judgmental and safe space to help motivate change, consider new perspectives, and restore or access the best version of oneself.
Connect with Sara
If it might help to chat, please arrange a complimentary 15 minute consultation to address general needs and interests of yours and also to determine if I am the most appropriate therapist partner for you.