Team
Cynthia Yesko, Ph.D., LCPC
founder, holistic therapy institute
Founder of the Holistic Therapy Institute, Dr. Cynthia Yesko is a holistic counselor and educator with over 30 years’ experience helping clients rework old stress patterns that can interfere with health and wellness into more updated patterns that make it easier to navigate ordinary stressors and extraordinary challenges. The institute offers counseling and a first responder wellness program.
Dr. Yesko provides individual, couple, family, and group counseling for stressors including: grief/loss of a loved one; life transitions; workplace issues; relationship challenges; adoption issues; divorce/custody battle; and accident, injury, and illness. She specializes in the treatment of trauma, clergy abuse, and betrayal trauma. She also offers an education program for professionals who work on the front line with others’ stress and trauma including those in fields of medicine, law, child trafficking recovery, mental health, caregiving, wellness, law-enforcement, life and fire safety, and education.
Throughout the services offered, Dr. Yesko uses a combination of complementary relaxation techniques. The holistic techniques that are chosen are based on the client’s needs and preferences.
Dr. Yesko holds a Doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University. Dr. Yesko is a certified Reiki Practitioner, a certified telehealth provider, a Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) Provider, and has completed the certification program in Child Sex Trafficking Recovery (FCSTCTC) offered by the Association for the Recovery of Children (ARC). Dr. Yesko authored the Nine Steps to the Other Side of Triggered (c) Curriculum (TM), developed the Five Step Theory of Trigger Recognition (c) and created the process of Stress Pattern Mapping (c).
Over the past 30 years, she has been the director of a variety of nonprofit organizations that provide the following: counseling and psychoeducation to clients; education and clinical supervision to students in the mental health professions; and consultation and training to professionals who work with others’ stress and trauma. She is a clinical lecturer with extensive experience teaching counseling skills and trauma courses to master’s level counseling students at Northwestern University and teaching trauma techniques and interventions to professionals who help others who have experienced stress and trauma. Her teaching style blends education about the counseling process with information about how the body, brain, nervous system, and relationships change during stress and trauma.
Throughout Dr. Yesko’s career in the nonprofit sector, she has continuously worked on her own personal health and wellness. As she discovers new research, tools and resources to use during her own healing journey, she shares the information with others. She consistently receives the feedback that her educational materials help others grow. This feedback prompted her to develop the Stress Pattern Mapping process to share what she’s learned about how to rework old stress patterns that can interfere with growth and wellness into more updated patterns that make it easier to navigate ordinary stressors and extraordinary challenges.
Preferred Providers
Dr. Yesko may refer clients to preferred providers in other therapy fields such as physical therapy, clinical massage therapy, chiropractic work, acupuncture, yoga instruction, and wellness services for the purpose of evaluation and treatment. Each professional is an expert in their field, owns an established and thriving practice, carries the requisite insurance, licenses, and/or certifications needed to practice their particular therapy, and continuously works on their own personal health and wellness. The preferred providers are known by Dr. Yesko both personally and professionally, and while they may be able to provide clients with a level of services appropriate to your needs, a referral is not an assurance of the preferred providers’ competence.