Starting your mental health journey can be scary, but I'm glad you're here. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to begin this experience. I look forward to supporting you along the way. My name is Ali, and I am the founder of Equine Empowered Counseling Center, located in rural Hennepin, Illinois. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Illinois, with 17 years of professional work experience. It is my goal to provide clients with a warm and safe environment where thoughts and feelings can be shared without fear of judgment. It is my stance that the use of appropriately timed humor allows us to reduce the intensity of life's struggles. I also take a strengths based approach to empowering clients to tackle social, emotional, behavioral, family, biological, and mental health struggles. My professional background includes providing psychiatric crisis work, trauma, traditional talk-therapy, animal assisted therapies, equine (horse) assisted psychotherapy, and therapeutic riding. I have experience in helping clients with stress and anxiety, trauma and abuse, greif, motivation, self-esteem, confidence, & depression. Additionally, I have spent a lot of time working with wards of the state, those who have gone through the DCFS system, and those who have been adopted. Taking the first step to seeking a more fulfilling and happy life takes courage. I am here to support you in that process.

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

The first session is used to review intake information, and discuss confidentiality. We will spend some time getting to know each other, and ask questions, if there are any. The client has time to share the reason they are starting therapy . This is also a time to explore the client's expectations for therapy, and what they would like to get out of this experience. Before concluding, the client and therapist will work together to set goals for treatment.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

The following is a list of some of Ali's greatest strengths, but not limited to: Initiating treatment can be extremely difficult. Supporting people in a light-hearted, kind manner is important in building a safe space, and a therapeutic connection with clients. Providing a judgment-free space for clients to be themselves, without fear of being vulnerable is something she hopes to provide. When appropriate, the use of light hearted humor is a tool that Ali uses to decrease the intensity of what clients are feeling in the moment, humanizing their experiences and reactions to hard life events. Being up to date on evidence-based treatment modalities is essential to providing the most profound mental health treatment. The ability to hold clients accountable for their lives, and the changes they desire to make in an empowering, direct way is something she strives to facilitate. A wide history of work experience has provided a rich background in treating many different mental health diagnoses, utilizing many different modalities of treatment.

About Ali Quigley-Holmbeck

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