Grow Therapy Home
Vicki Kamhi, LCPC - Illinois Therapist at Grow Therapy

Vicki Kamhi

Vicki Kamhi

(she/her)

LCPC
16 years of experience
Intelligent
Authentic
Warm
Virtual
In-person
3306 South Sixt...

Hi – I’m Vicki – do you ever find yourself feeling lost as you wander on a path that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere? Or maybe you’re standing at a fork in the road and you aren’t sure which way to go. No matter how lost you’re feeling or how long you've struggled on your journey, please know that you CAN find your way. I am committed to walking beside you and helping you find your unique path to create a life full of wellness, personal growth, joy and meaning. We'll work together to: build on the strengths you already have (there is more right with you than wrong!), find ways for you to let go of unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that no longer serve you, and explore new strategies and skills to help you achieve your goals. I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and Certified Alcohol/Other Drug Counselor (CADC) with over 15 years of counseling experience. I have worked with adults and families in inpatient and outpatient settings as well as students enrolled in nursing school. My areas of expertise include anxiety, test anxiety, panic disorder, stress management, depression, bipolar disorder, substance use, anger management, chronic illness, grief and loss, and life adjustment issues. If you are interested in working with a therapist who is committed to creating an authentic, positive collaborative relationship with you, I hope that you will schedule a time to meet with me.

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

The first thing I hope you notice is my commitment to providing a safe space built on acceptance and respect where you can feel free to express yourself without fear of being judged. We will first spend some time getting to know each other so we can decide if we will work well together. If we decide that we’re a good fit, I’ll encourage you to talk about what is important to you, what is working in your life and what isn’t, and what is getting in the way of you living the life you want. I will also encourage you to reflect on your strengths and to realize that, in the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn, “As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than wrong with you.” I do this because when we feel overwhelmed and lost, we often forget the strengths we have and the coping skills that have helped us in the past. When you get in touch with your strengths, you can more easily tap into them as you start on your journey.

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

My biggest strength is that I believe in you and your ability to make meaningful changes in your life. Because my path has included lots of detours and what seemed like dead ends over the years, I understand how daunting and painful personal growth can be. I have genuine empathy for your willingness to step out onto a path leading to the unknown and will encourage you to trust the process that is unfolding before you.

About Vicki Kamhi

Identifies as

Specializes in

Serves ages

Licensed in

Accepts

Address

3306 South Sixth Street Road, Springfield IL

Appointments

Virtual & in-person

My treatment methods

Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)

I have 16 years experience in using cognitive behavior therapy with clients and it is the foundation for my therapeutic approach. We will explore how our thoughts affect our emotions and behaviors. I will encourage you to identify your unhelpful thoughts and explore how they affect your emotions and behaviors. When you recognize your unhelpful thoughts, you will learn to challenge and replace them with more helpful thoughts that reduce your mental health symptoms and help you start living a life full of meaning and joy.

Dialectical Behavior (DBT)

I have used DBT since I started working with clients 16 years ago. While I first started sharing DBT skills with my clients who experienced primarily anxiety symptoms, I have realized that everyone can benefit from using different strategies to support their increased relaxation and sense of well-being. As a result, I encourage all of my clients to learn about and use a variety of DBT skills in their daily life.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

I have incorporated mindfulness into my work with all my clients for the last 10 years. This is so important because it’s human nature to push away strong, painful emotions because we just don’t want to experience them. When we avoid these emotions, they don’t go away – they get more powerful which can cause strong emotional reactions such as anxiety or depression. People who have substance use issues may turn to alcohol or drugs to help them ignore these emotions. During our sessions, I will encourage you to start to be present to strong, often painful emotions for a limited period of time so that you don't become overwhelmed. While this can be challenging at first, you will notice that these emotions will have less of a “hold” on you as you sit with them without wanting them to be different. When you are more present to your emotions, your mental health symptoms will start to decrease and you can more easily tap into your coping strategies.

Compassion Focused

I encourage all of my clients to focus on self-compassion during our work together. While we all have a tendency to be kind to others, most of us are not usually kind to ourselves. When we’re unkind to ourselves, we can become overwhelmed with a relentless barrage of extremely harsh and painful self-talk. If we continue to listen to and believe our critical self-talk, we can get stuck on our journey because maybe we don’t believe we deserve to be happy or we doubt our abilities to achieve our goals. I will encourage you to reflect on your negative self-talk and recognize that the critical messages you are telling yourself are stories that are simply not true. We will explore ways to practice self-compassion and I will encourage you to talk to yourself as you would talk to your best friend. You will begin to practice self-compassion which I will encourage you to continue for the rest of your life!

Solution Focused Brief Treatment

I have more than 10 years of experience working with clients using a solution focused brief treatment approach. When I work with clients, I focus on solution building rather than problem solving with an emphasis on current circumstances and future hopes. By using this approach, my clients tell me that they don't get "stuck" focusing on their problems and are able to more quickly identify and start working on solutions to the challenges they are facing.