Fermata Psychotherapy

06/08/2026

Conflict is part of life. Disappointments, disagreements, and misunderstandings are natural aspects of human relationships. For many people, conflict avoidance may be a survival strategy learned in relationships where anger, disagreement, or disappointment felt dangerous.
In this post, we look at how complex, relational trauma can shape the way we respond to conflict, why we may freeze, apologize, withdraw, overfunction, or silence ourselves, and how trauma therapy can help us reconnect with our own feelings and needs without losing connection to others.

Trauma therapy can help you understand why conflict feels dangerous and how early relational wounds shape fear, shame, anger, and connection.

06/04/2026

We are excited to welcome Zack Wiener, MHL, MA, to Fermata Psychotherapy!
Zack works with adults dealing with anxiety and depression, grief and bereavement, addiction and recovery, complex trauma, family dynamics, LGBTQ+ issues, questions of identity and purpose, spirituality concerns, and chronic or terminal illness.
👉 In-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO plans
👉 Immediate daytime and evening availability
👉 Appointments in person in Downtown Chicago and online throughout Illinois
In his own words: "People are much more complex than the initial reason they seek therapy. Whatever desires, fears, or mixed feelings you arrive with, I will be glad to hear your story and eager to help."
You can read more about Zack here:
https://www.fermatapsychotherapy.com/zack-wiener
Welcome, Zack!

Our expert therapists offer therapy and mental health counseling in Downtown Chicago to get to the root, change old patterns, and live a fulfilling life.

05/26/2026

Depression is not always experienced as sadness. Sometimes it appears a mix of certainty and futility: the feeling that nothing we do will matter, that others will never feel moved by us, that the future will only repeat the past, or that wanting too much will lead to disappointment.
This post explores how learned helplessness can become linked to depression, and how depression therapy can help restore a more alive sense of agency from within.

Learn how depression therapy helps address learned helplessness, resignation, and the deeper emotional patterns that make change feel impossible.

05/19/2026

Some people seem to take in the anxiety of others as if it was their own. What may appear to be heightened empathy can also reflect unconscious attachment patterns, internalized relationships, and a vulnerable boundary between one’s own emotional life and the emotional life of others. Another person’s distress may stir old fears of disconnection, blame, rejection, or aggression.
This post explores why absorbing other people’s anxiety can be an expression of unconscious identifications, conflicts, and allegiances. Making them more visible in therapy is a way to loosen their grip, allowing for a sense of self that feels more grounded and secure.

Explore how emotional contagion can intensify anxiety, and how anxiety therapy helps you care for others without absorbing their stress.

05/08/2026

Loss is inevitable when we love. Sometimes, our efforts to avoid the pain of mourning will keep us from being able to love. Allowing ourselves to become attached always involves risking loss. But even if we lose the object of our love, our capacity to love can survive, keeping our hearts open to receive and give again.

05/07/2026

A good reminder on Freud's 170th birthday. Some of us spend a lifetime running away from our fears, wishes, longings, conflicts, and pain, only to recognize later -if we are fortunate- all the ways in which they have been with us all along. Becoming reacquainted with ourselves and all we carry inside always takes work and courage, but is needed to create a life that feels more authentic and full.

05/04/2026

Emotional neglect can be difficult to recognize because it is often defined by what was missing rather than what actively happened. A person may have been cared for materially, but still grown up without enough emotional attunement, curiosity, comfort, or recognition.
People who experienced emotional neglect may have learned early to become self-sufficient, undemanding, responsible, or highly attuned to others. These adaptations protected them in childhood, but later in life they can make intimacy, self-trust, and emotional expression feel difficult.
This post explores how trauma therapy can help us understand the effects of emotional neglect, make sense of old self-protective patterns, grieve what we did not receive, and begin to reconnect with our own feelings, needs, and desires.

Trauma therapy can help heal emotional neglect by uncovering old patterns, restoring self-trust, grieving what was missing, and reconnecting with your needs.

04/21/2026

Life transitions often bring more than practical stress. A move, breakup, promotion, loss, or new beginning can unsettle our sense of self and awaken fears and conflict that feel older than the moment itself.
Anxiety is usually associated with the future, but it can also reflect hidden grief, conflicts around change, and the difficulty of letting go of who we have been while stepping into uncharted waters.
Psychodynamic anxiety therapy can help us make sense of these emotional undercurrents and create more room to move through change with clarity and freedom.

Anxiety during major life changes is often about more than stress. Anxiety therapy helps uncover deeper fears and build steadiness in times of transition.

04/10/2026

Many men don’t come to therapy saying they feel depressed. They may report irritability, disengagement, or a persistent sense of pressure and failure. They may feel like they are stuck and have lost access to something essential in their sense of self. Depression is often indicative of internal challenges and conflicts, many of which are shaped by social expectations, internalized ideas about strength, usefulness, value, and control that leave little room for uncertainty, dependency, or need. Over time, these expectations influence not only men's behaviors but the relationship they keep with themselves, including what seems acceptable to feel and what must be pushed aside. Depression, in this context, can reflect the cost of maintaining a version of masculinity that leaves too much of the self out. Read our latest article on how therapy can help!

Social expectations shape depression in men and limit their emotional life. Learn how therapy for men can help restore vitality, authenticity, and self-understanding.

04/09/2026

Whether our life looks like calm water or perpetual turbulence, what matters is always under the surface. Pain, loss, fear, and yearning are inevitable parts of our humanity that lie underneath, often outside of our awareness. It is by recognizing the depths of our inner life and our history that we can learn to navigate the undercurrent shaping who we are and who we can become.