Relationship Therapy in Chicago & Virtual
Support for individuals, couples, and families navigating conflict, betrayal, disconnection, divorce, family dynamics, and life transitions.
Serving Chicago, the North Shore, and virtual clients in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, D.C., Utah, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, and Iowa.
Do You Feel Disconnected From Someone You Love?
Do you and your partner keep having the same fight over and over?
Are you trying to understand what happened in a relationship, what needs to change, or whether the relationship can feel better again?
Relationships can be one of the most important parts of our lives, and also one of the hardest. They affect how we feel, how we cope, how we see ourselves, and how safe we feel in the world.
We work with clients in person in the Chicago area and virtually across 15 states. Relationship therapy can help you slow things down, understand the patterns, communicate more clearly, and figure out what is actually going on underneath the conflict, distance, resentment, betrayal, or hurt.
How We Help with Relationships
Relationships are the throughline. In this practice, relationships are built through consistency, honesty, curiosity, and care. They do not exist without empathy, validation, and thoughtful feedback.
In therapy, that means we are on your side, but we are not just going to nod and agree. We offer support, but also challenges. Validation matters. So does accountability. Many people grow when they feel both understood and challenged in a way that still feels safe.
Relationship therapy gives you a place to look honestly at what is happening. Sometimes the problem is communication. Sometimes it is trust. Sometimes it is years of resentment. Sometimes it is family history showing up in your current relationship. Sometimes it is grief, betrayal, divorce, parenting stress, addiction, trauma, or the pressure of life transitions.
We help you connect the patterns, name what matters, and figure out what needs to happen next.
With over two decades of helping individuals, couples, and families navigate conflict, communication struggles, betrayal, divorce, family dynamics, and major life transitions, we understand that relationship challenges rarely begin with a single argument or event. We help clients make sense of the patterns underneath the problem, understand what is keeping them stuck, and find a clearer path forward.
Common Reasons People Seek Relationship Therapy
Every relationship is different, but people often come to relationship therapy for help with:
- Frequent arguing or conflict
- Communication problems
- Emotional distance or disconnection
- Feeling lonely inside a relationship
- Trust issues
- Infidelity or betrayal
- Divorce or separation
- Co-parenting struggles
- Family conflict
- Parent-child relationship stress
- Blended family dynamics
- Difficulty setting boundaries
- Feeling unheard or misunderstood
- Resentment that has built over time
- Major life transitions
- Conflict with adult children, parents, siblings, or in-laws
- Repeating the same patterns in different relationships
- Wanting to understand your own role in relationship problems
- Trying to decide whether to stay, repair, separate, or move forward differently
No matter what brought you here, relationship therapy can help you understand the relationship more clearly and decide what change might look like.
What Relationship Therapy Is
Relationship therapy is a place to understand what is happening between people, and also what is happening inside each person. It is not about deciding who is right and who is wrong. It is not about winning or losing. It is not about blaming one person for everything. It is about slowing down the cycle enough to understand it.
In relationship therapy, we help you talk in a way that creates more clarity and less damage. We help you recognize patterns that keep repeating, and we work with you to find a more honest, steady, and useful way forward.
You will leave each session with something: a reframe, a way to name what is happening, or one thing to try before you come back. The goal is not just insight. It is movement.
For clients who benefit from deeper body-based awareness, relationship therapy can also be integrated with somatic work, helping you recognize how stress, emotion, and relational patterns are held in the body, and how that affects connection and communication.
Ways We Help with Relationship Therapy
Everyone experiences relationships differently, so we tailor therapy to fit your unique situation. Some of the approaches we may use include:
Validation and Thoughtful Feedback
Validation does not mean agreement. It means we are trying to understand why something makes sense from where you are standing.
Thoughtful feedback means we will also help you look at your own patterns. Sometimes that means naming over-functioning. Sometimes it means naming avoidance. Sometimes it means helping you see how your tone, timing, fear, defensiveness, silence, or criticism affects the relationship.
The balance matters. Support without challenge can keep people stuck. Challenge without care does not land.
Accountability and Repair
Healthy relationships require accountability. That does not mean shame. It means being willing to look at your part, circle back, apologize, clarify, repair, and try again.
Some of the most healing moments in relationships happen when someone says, “I thought about what I said,” or “I misunderstood,” or “I overreacted,” or “I can see how that landed for you.” Repair builds trust. It tells the other person that the relationship matters enough to revisit what happened and do it differently.
Boundaries and Communication
Boundaries are part of healthy relationships. They help protect your time, energy, emotional well-being, and sense of self. They also make relationships clearer because people do not have to guess what is okay, what is not okay, what is too much, or what you actually need.
In therapy, we help you communicate boundaries in a way that is direct, compassionate, and realistic. We also help you tolerate the discomfort that can come with changing old patterns.
Changing Patterns Across Relationships
Sometimes people come to relationship therapy not because of one relationship, but because they keep finding themselves in the same dynamic — the same fights, the same distance, the same feeling of not being understood or not being able to say what they mean.
Symptoms are the surface. Patterns are what’s underneath. We help you understand why the same argument keeps happening in different relationships, why certain dynamics keep repeating, and what is actually driving them.
Naming the pattern is often the moment something shifts. That is not bad luck. And it can be understood and changed.
Our Team
Lynn Zakeri, Ellen Lazar, and David Krzysko all work with individuals and couples navigating relationship challenges. Each brings distinct training and style, and each shares the same clinical values: curiosity before judgment, honesty before comfort, and the belief that the relationship between therapist and client is itself part of what heals.
Reach out and we will help you figure out which of us is the right fit.
Begin Relationship Therapy Today
If you are ready to better understand your relationship patterns, improve communication, rebuild trust, work through conflict, or navigate a painful transition, relationship therapy can help.
You do not have to wait until the relationship is falling apart before asking for help.
Reach out to find your right fit. That’s where we always start.
Ready to Begin Therapy in Skokie or Northfield?
Contact Lynn Zakeri LCSW and Associates.
We will email with you, talk by phone, or text to help you figure out your best fit.
Counseling Services at Lynn Zakeri LCSW and Associates
We offer online therapy, in-person therapy, depression therapy, post-traumatic stress disorder therapy, LGBTQ+ support, EMDR therapy, young adult and college transition support, marriage therapy, family therapy, divorce support, couples therapy, anxiety therapy, parenting support, self-esteem therapy and more.
Other Ways to See Lynn Zakeri
Follow me on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube @lynnzakerilcsw, where I post videos about my style, strategies, and tips for therapy.
Therapy Can Help You Take Control of Your Mental Health
If you’re ready to take control of your mental health and improve your well-being, therapy can be a powerful tool.
You do not have to commit all the time. We can be flexible, and even on the day of your appointment, we can pivot to a virtual session anytime.
Many therapists, including myself, offer therapy sessions that are tailored to your individual needs and goals.
Contact Lynn to find your right fit today.