About William
William Swieringa is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 39 years of experience helping people manage stress and anxiety. He practices in Illinois and works with adults seeking practical support for everyday struggles. He approaches each person with patience and steady guidance.
He uses clear, straightforward conversation to help people sort out what matters most. Sessions often focus on habits, thinking patterns, and small changes that make daily life easier.
Background and approach
He also addresses concerns like grief, trauma, addiction, depression, bipolar mood concerns, and difficulties with intimacy or relationships. William draws on methods such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients notice unhelpful patterns and try new responses. Mindfulness and Motivational Interviewing are part of his toolbox when people want to build awareness and motivation for change.
He adapts approaches to fit a person’s situation rather than applying one fixed method. Over his career he has supported people dealing with caregiving stress, chronic illness and pain, adoption and foster care issues, attachment concerns, career transitions, and coping after loss. He also helps with eating and sleeping struggles, ADHD-related challenges, and compassion fatigue.
People who choose him can expect direct, calm guidance and time to think through options. He encourages small, doable steps and checks in about what is working. To begin, people complete a short questionnaire and schedule sessions based on his availability.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, then choose actions that align with their values. It is useful for anxiety, stress, and making meaningful life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts and behaviors keep problems going and teaches practical skills to change those patterns. It often helps with anxiety, depression, sleep, and coping skills. Mindfulness Therapy adds simple attention and breathing practices to increase awareness and reduce reactivity, which can be helpful for stress and emotional overwhelm.Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. William will collaborate with each person to decide what feels most useful. He listens to goals and preferences and adjusts methods as progress unfolds, so the plan evolves with the client's needs.
Online sessions are offered by video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video calls let people meet face to face when visual connection matters. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can fit a break at work. Live chat and text messaging suit short check-ins, journaling-style support, or when writing helps process feelings. These options aim to make it easier to keep therapy consistent with a busy life.
Questions people ask
What kinds of concerns does he address?
What is his therapy style like?
How much experience does he have?
What are his credentials and where is he based?
Which languages are supported?
What session formats are available?
How does billing and cost work?
How do I get started?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 39 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.