Deborah Jost-Beauford, LCPC

Deborah Jost-Beauford is an Illinois LCPC - Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor with 15 years of experience. She practices as a psychotherapist and brings experience in art therapy and pet therapy to her work. Her caseload has included stress, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma and abuse, parenting concerns, sleep and eating issues, and anger among other concerns.

She offers straightforward, practical help for people feeling overwhelmed by strong emotions or repeated patterns. Sessions focus on understanding what leads to heated moments, learning skills to respond differently, and building day-to-day practices that reduce reactivity. She also addresses related issues such as impulsivity, caregiver stress, chronic pain, and changes across life stages.

Her clinical toolkit includes Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), mindfulness work, and psychodynamic ideas. That mix is used to teach concrete skills, reframe unhelpful thinking, and look at how past patterns still shape present reactions. Art-based approaches and guided mindfulness are sometimes part of the work when clients find them useful.

Deborah places emphasis on practical steps people can use between sessions. Typical work includes short behavioral experiments, emotion regulation skills, and attention training. For someone dealing with anger at home or at work, this means breaking down triggers into manageable parts and practicing small shifts that add up over time.

She practices in Illinois and works in English. People who want to begin are asked to complete a brief matching questionnaire and schedule a first session through the online options button.

Therapeutic approaches used in online sessions