Experiential therapists in Merrillville, Indiana IN
Browse Experiential therapists in Merrillville. Compare credentials, specialties and therapeutic approach. Contact a therapist to learn more.
Experiential
Rachel Miller
Marriage and Family Therapist, PhD, LMFT
I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a PhD and the founder of Hold the Vision Therapy. I’m a direct, engaged therapist so if you’re looking for someone who will actively work with you to understand and shift the patterns that are getting in the way of your relationships or personal growth, we’ll likely be a good fit.
Relationships are my specialty, whether that’s with yourself, partners, family, or chosen family. I work with communication issues, intimacy and sexual concerns, trauma, infidelity, life transitions, and high-conflict situations like domestic violence, divorce and co-parenting. I’m poly- and LGBTQIA+-affirmative and kink-aware, and I bring a sex-positive, nonjudgmental approach to this work.
9 Years Experience
Online in Merrillville, IN Indiana (Online Only)
Experiential
Ilyssa Swartout
Psychologist, Psy.D.
I’m Dr. Ilyssa Swartout, a licensed psychologist dedicated to helping adults and couples heal from past wounds and create meaningful change. My approach blends warmth, presence, and evidence-based therapy to help you move beyond old patterns and reconnect with your sense of worth and wholeness.
My background includes over 20 years of mentorship with James Bugental, Ph.D., founder of Humanistic Psychotherapy, and advanced training in EMDR, Brainspotting, Gestalt Therapy, and Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy (DNMS). These approaches support healing from trauma, anxiety, depression, and relationship difficulties by addressing both emotional and body-based experiences.
As an EMDR Consultant and Certified In-Depth Therapist, I guide clients and other professionals toward lasting transformation and self-understanding.
Therapy is a courageous step toward healing and growth. Together, we’ll create a safe and supportive space for you to explore, recover, and thrive.
25 Years Experience
Online in Merrillville, IN Indiana (Online Only)
Experiential
Stacy Lepley
Licensed Mental Health Counselor, LMHC, CBC
Choosing to step into therapy is a profound act of courage. If you are arriving here feeling fractured, exhausted by systemic pressures, or disconnected from your own sense of peace, I want to welcome you just as you are. I believe that therapy is an equal, sacred partnership built on radical warmth, deep safety, and authentic human connection. You are the ultimate expert on your own life history; my role is to walk beside you as a grounded, down-to-earth ally, providing the space and the tools you need to find your footing and heal.
My worldview as a counselor is shaped by a deep understanding of the delicate bridge between mind and body. True emotional wellness cannot exist in isolation. You are a whole person whose nervous system, thoughts, and daily stress levels are intimately tied to your unique biology, your past experiences, and the heavy social and economic realities you navigate every day. Because of this, I look at your story through a highly integrative lens. I don't believe in rigid, cold clinical boxes or passive, distant head-nodding. Instead, I bring my full, authentic self to our sessions, blending a gentle clinical perspective with an open heart and an interactive, highly collaborative style.
In our work together, we will move at a pace that feels entirely safe for you. Because everyone processes life and pain differently, I love using creative, visual, and somatic frameworks to help bring what is happening internally into the light, transforming overwhelming or abstract emotions into tangible, manageable steps. Together, we will gently explore the root causes of what is keeping you stuck, soothe your nervous system from old trauma or chronic burnout, and unpack the real-world burdens that demanding environments place on your mind. There is no judgment here—only a dedicated, compassionate space where you can quiet the noise of the world, honor your lived experience, and reclaim your personal agency to build a life of lasting peace and clarity.
7 Years Experience
Online in Merrillville, IN Indiana (Online Only)
Experiential
James Parker
Psychologist, PhD
I view therapy as a collaborative interaction in service of understanding the best forms of quality human relating. My approach to therapy is primarily guided by Coherence Therapy. Coherence Therapy is an approach to treatment that is different from many others in that - instead of focusing on what is "negative" or "wrong" and trying to change or alter it - the purpose is to genuinely understand a person's symptoms; to curiously explore why maintaining certain patterns of thinking and behavior is emotionally necessary, even when a person is feeling stuck because of those patterns. Understanding the symptom leads to identifying the underlying emotional reasons of why we do things and addresses the cause of feeling stuck, not just the symptom, which leads to meaningful and lasting changes.
9 Years Experience
Online in Merrillville, IN Indiana (Online Only)
Experiential
Dr. Stéphanie Gamache, PhD
Hypnotherapist, PhD
Something in you knows that what you're carrying runs deeper than the presenting problem.
Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, capable, and outwardly composed-yet internally they live with anxiety, depression, chronic tension or pain, relentless self-criticism, or a sense that something essential is blocked, muted, or just out of reach. These struggles may surface in mood, in the body, in behavior, or in relationships-including sexuality and intimacy-but they are rarely contained to any one area. They tend to reflect deeper emotional and relational patterns formed early in life, often before language, that continue to shape how a person approaches closeness, vulnerability, agency, pleasure, and self-expression.
My work centers on how early experience shapes the capacity for self-regulation, desire, connection, and meaning throughout life-and particularly on how people come to know what they need and want, how they learn to express or inhibit those impulses, and what happens when these capacities become conflicted, constricted, or difficult to sustain.
I integrate psychoanalytic hypnotherapy, somatic awareness, and clinical sexology within a reflective, depth-oriented process. Hypnosis functions as a central clinical tool-creating conditions for deeper internal contact with emotional, bodily, and unconscious experience that can be difficult to reach through conversation alone. The aim is not only relief from symptoms, but the development of a more coherent and compassionate relationship with one's inner life: sensations, emotions, impulses, and desires.
This work is oriented toward lasting psychological change-and toward greater freedom in how one relates to oneself, one's body, and one's capacity for connection, authenticity, and vitality. It is best suited to those ready to move beyond symptom management toward something more fundamental.
7 Years Experience
Online in Merrillville, IN Indiana (Online Only)
Experiential Therapy therapists in Merrillville, Indiana Statistics
Experiential Therapy therapists in Merrillville, Indiana average 16 years of experience and charge around $198 per session. 100% offer online sessions. The most commonly treated issues are Anxiety or Fears (88%), Stress (70%), and Depression (64%).
Average years in practice
16 Years Experience
Average cost per session
$198
Accept insurance
36%
Offer sliding scale
45%
Gender ID
| 70% |
Female |
|
| 27% |
Male |
|
| 3% |
Gender Fluid |
|
Session Type
| 52% |
In Person and Online |
|
| 48% |
Online Only |
|
Top Specialties
| 88% | Anxiety or Fears |
| 70% | Stress |
| 64% | Depression |
| 64% | Self Esteem |
| 55% | Trauma and PTSD |
| 48% | Loss or Grief |
| 42% | Relationship and Marriage Counseling |
Ages Served
| 100% | Adult |
| 67% | Young Adult |
| 55% | Senior |
| 27% | Teen |
| 18% | Children |
Client Focus
| 48% | Women |
| 39% | LGBTQ+ |
| 33% | Men |
| 24% | Military / Veterans |
| 21% | Buddhist |