Chicago Compass Counseling, LLC

Chicago Compass Counseling, LLC Discover powerful change. Solution-focused online therapy in Chicago, IL. Our mission is to help our clients create the lives they want to live.

We are dedicated to helping people free themselves from the cycle of self-destructive behavior. We want our clients to feel purpose, meaning, and value in their daily experience. This means we reject any "one size fits all model" for behavior change. Our VIP-level service is tailored to each client at their current level of readiness to change. We believe that ALL people are capable of change. Whether our client is engaging problem behavior or is the loved one of someone who is struggling, we are here to provide evidence-based support, connection, and a path towards integrity for anyone who has suffered from the effects of problem behaviors. Sometimes our client is an individual, and at other times, our client is the family system. We practice harm reduction with clients who are ambivalent about changing. We believe that each one of our clients can achieve value-based living.

Habitual or mindless drinking is rarely random.To understand it, you have to ask a different question.What is drinking a...
01/12/2026

Habitual or mindless drinking is rarely random.

To understand it, you have to ask a different question.

What is drinking actually doing for you?

In my work, these are the most common functions:
Quieting negative or looping thoughts
Habit and association with certain places or times
Numbing physical pain or tension
“Boredom,” which often has loneliness underneath it
Seeking pleasure, relief, or excitement

For many people, alcohol becomes a fast, reliable way to temporarily meet real needs. Needs for relief, rest, comfort, or escape from pain. Especially when stress, trauma, burnout, or chronic illness are involved.

The goal of moderation counseling is not to take something away. It’s to understand what drinking is doing for you, and then build other ways to meet those same needs without while staying aligned with your values.

There are many paths toward feeling better and more free.

Abstinence is one option among many.

If you want help understanding your pattern and what would actually help, fill out our contact form to book a Discovery Call.

Link in bio.

Tired of obsessing over whether your drinking is a “problem”?Try asking different questions.What if it’s the only off-sw...
01/07/2026

Tired of obsessing over whether your drinking is a “problem”?

Try asking different questions.

What if it’s the only off-switch you’ve developed to relax, unwind, quiet your thoughts, or dull pain?

What stress is your body holding that you don’t know how to release?

Here’s what I know from years of doing this work: when people understand what’s really driving the pattern, change becomes possible. Often faster than they expect.

Drinking isn’t a moral failure. It’s a puzzle to understand.

I’m Sarah Suzuki, founder of Chicago Compass Counseling. I help people understand what’s actually going on and build solutions that work. Evidence-based, with heart.

When you book a consultation with me, we focus on getting at the underlying why and then connecting you with the right kind of support on our team. Support that can actually help you do something about it.

If this resonates, you can book an intake consultation by filling out our contact form. From there, you’ll connect with our Intake Coordinator and receive immediate impressions, resource recommendations, and tailored therapist matches to help you solve the puzzle.
Link in bio.

Meet Sarah Suzuki, LCSW, CRADC.Founder of Chicago Compass Counseling and a therapist who believes change should be pract...
01/05/2026

Meet Sarah Suzuki, LCSW, CRADC.
Founder of Chicago Compass Counseling and a therapist who believes change should be practical, humane, and rooted in dignity.

Sarah’s work centers people who look successful on the outside but feel disconnected, stuck, or quietly overwhelmed. She is known for alcohol moderation counseling, but her deeper focus is helping clients align their daily lives with their values without shame, labels, or forced outcomes.

Her approach is collaborative and direct. You will not be analyzed from a distance or asked to fit into a pre-written plan. You will be met where you are and supported in finding what actually works for you.

This is therapy for people who want real tools, honest conversation, and room to define success on their own terms.

Learn more about Sarah or explore working together through the link in our bio.

01/01/2026

A new year can carry a quiet kind of pressure. The push to reset. To upgrade. To prove something. To abandon old versions of yourself overnight. Many people enter January feeling like they should be more disciplined, more productive, more grateful, more everything.

That pressure often comes from survival patterns, cultural expectations, and systems that reward constant self improvement but never self compassion. It is no wonder so many people feel like they start the year already behind.

Therapy reminds us that real change does not come from harsh resolutions. It comes from creating the internal conditions where your mind and nervous system can settle. It comes from boundaries that protect your energy. It comes from recognizing the difference between who you are and who you were told to be.

If the only thing you do this month is slow down enough to hear yourself, that is enough.
If you move into the year gently, that is enough.
If you choose rest over reinvention, that is enough.

Support is here whenever you decide it is time to begin the year on your own terms.

Use the link in our bio if you want grounding, culturally responsive care as you move into this next season.





There is a moment in therapy that feels almost like a deep exhale. It does not happen all at once, and it is not flashy,...
12/30/2025

There is a moment in therapy that feels almost like a deep exhale. It does not happen all at once, and it is not flashy, but it changes everything. Clients come in convinced that their reactions prove something is wrong with them. After years of being dismissed, gaslit, or told to “toughen up,” it makes sense that self-blame becomes the default.

But with time, clarity builds.
You start to understand why certain dynamics hit so hard.
Why your nervous system responds the way it does.
Why your boundaries feel both necessary and terrifying.
Why your body remembers things your mind tried to file away.

When the shame finally starts to loosen, it is not because someone told you to “think positive.” It is because you finally have context for your own experience. That is what trauma informed, culturally responsive therapy is meant to do. Not fix you, but help you see the truth of your story with compassion instead of criticism.

If you are craving support that actually honors the whole of who you are, that next step is available.

Use the link in our bio to start your healing process in a way that feels honest, human, and grounded.






SomaticHealing
AnxietyTherapyChicago
LiberationFocusedTherapy

12/27/2025

The end of the year can stir up a lot. Maybe you are noticing the exhaustion you pushed past, the boundaries you negotiated with yourself, or the parts of you that felt stretched thin. Maybe you are feeling pressure to reflect beautifully or set goals when you barely have the energy to close out the week.

You do not have to rush your healing to match a calendar.
You do not have to reinvent yourself by January.
You do not have to force meaning out of every difficult moment.

Some seasons are about integrating. Some are about pausing. Some are simply about catching your breath after months of holding everything together.

In trauma informed, culturally responsive therapy, the work often begins with learning how to honor the pace your body is already keeping. Rest becomes information. Slowness becomes clarity. Ending the year quietly can be just as powerful as ending it boldly.

If this time of year brings up reflection, numbness, tenderness, or anything in between, support is available whenever you choose to reach for it.

Use the link in our bio if you want grounded, culturally responsive support as you move into the new year.






SomaticHealing
TraumaInformedCare
LiberationFocusedTherapy

12/24/2025

For many women of color and folks with marginalized identities, healing has never been limited to talk or logic. Our families, our cultures, and our communities carried practices rooted in rhythm, breath, storytelling, movement, intuition, and connection long before anyone called it a “modality.”

EMDR often feels familiar to people for that reason.
Not because it is simple, but because the body already knows what it means to move toward release. The bilateral stimulation, the grounding, the slow unwinding of old memories can echo the ways our ancestors processed pain without language. It is less about learning something new and more about returning to something the body never forgot.

When EMDR is practiced through a culturally grounded, trauma informed lens, it stops feeling like a clinical technique and starts feeling like reconnection:
with lineage,
with intuition,
with what was interrupted,
with what has always been yours.

If you are exploring trauma therapy and want support that honors both your nervous system and your cultural roots, there is space for that kind of work here.

Use the link in our bio to explore EMDR therapy from a culturally responsive, liberation focused approach.






AncestralHealing
LiberationFocusedTherapy
SomaticHealing

Most people do not need a therapist who follows a script.They need a therapist who listens deeply enough to understand w...
12/20/2025

Most people do not need a therapist who follows a script.
They need a therapist who listens deeply enough to understand what their system has been carrying. The pressure, the survival strategies, the identity wounds, the things they were never allowed to say out loud.

This is why an integrative approach matters.
EMDR helps when your body is still bracing for impact.
IFS helps when different parts of you are pulling in different directions.
Relational therapy helps when the world has taught you to shrink or overperform.

When these approaches work together, something shifts. You stop trying to fight your reactions and start understanding them. You stop internalizing blame and start recognizing patterns. You stop surviving on autopilot and begin reconnecting with your own clarity.

If you want trauma therapy that feels human, grounded, and culturally responsive, you deserve support that honors your full story.

Use the link in our bio to explore whether this blend of care is right for you.






RelationalTherapy
LiberationFocusedTherapy
SomaticHealingChicago

So many people walk through therapy doors already convinced they are the issue. They have spent years being told they ar...
12/17/2025

So many people walk through therapy doors already convinced they are the issue. They have spent years being told they are dramatic, sensitive, cold, angry, or “too much.” By the time they sit in a therapist’s office, they are bracing for confirmation that the problem really is them.

But here is what actually happens in early sessions: the moment someone tells the truth about their anxiety, their relationships, their boundaries, or the pressures they carry, it becomes clear their reactions are not random or defective. They are responses to a lifetime of gaslighting, cultural expectations, power dynamics, and survival.

Therapy is not about fixing you.
It is about understanding you.

This is the work that helps people feel less afraid of their own emotions and more connected to their inner clarity. This is where self trust starts to rebuild. And when therapy is trauma informed, culturally responsive, and liberation centered, the healing feels like relief instead of judgment.

If you are exhausted from assuming something is wrong with you, there is another way.
Use the link in our bio to take the next step toward support that actually fits your life and your story.








12/13/2025

The holiday season can activate old expectations that were never yours to begin with. Many women of color and folks with marginalized identities carry inherited pressure to keep the peace, stay agreeable, perform gratitude, or soften their needs for the comfort of others. That kind of inner criticism does not come from nowhere. It is learned, modeled, and often rewarded in environments shaped by oppression and survival.

This time of year can make that criticism louder.
You may notice yourself overexplaining.
Overcommitting.
Shrinking.
Questioning whether your boundaries make you “difficult.”
Wondering if you are asking for too much when you are actually asking for the bare minimum.

In trauma informed, liberation focused therapy, the work is not about pushing away those patterns. It is about understanding where they came from and reconnecting with the parts of you that were never meant to be silenced. When you see the origins of that inner critic, it becomes easier to choose yourself with less apology and more clarity.

If the holidays bring up old roles, old stories, or old versions of you that no longer fit, support is available at your pace and on your terms.

Use the link in our bio to begin reconnecting with your voice, your boundaries, and your self worth.








There comes a point in healing where talking helps you understand the pain but does not fully move it. You can name the ...
12/10/2025

There comes a point in healing where talking helps you understand the pain but does not fully move it. You can name the patterns, name the trauma, name the survival strategies. Yet your body still reacts like the danger is happening right now.

That does not mean you failed therapy.
It means your nervous system needs a different kind of support.

EMDR therapy helps when your mind has done all the work it can, but your body is still carrying the weight. It is not about reliving the past or pushing yourself to “get over it.” It is a trauma informed therapy that lets your system release what has been stuck without overwhelming you. And when done through a culturally responsive, liberation centered lens, EMDR can feel less like a clinical technique and more like a return to yourself.

If you are ready for trauma therapy that honors your story, your identities, and your pace, EMDR may be the path forward.

Use the link in our bio to book a consultation and explore whether EMDR is the right next step for you.








So many high achieving women of color sit across from Christine and whisper the same quiet fear.“Why do I feel like this...
12/06/2025

So many high achieving women of color sit across from Christine and whisper the same quiet fear.
“Why do I feel like this when my life looks fine?”

Because the world taught you to achieve.
It did not teach you how to feel safe.

Trauma for women of color often hides behind competence. You keep moving, keep excelling, keep being the one everyone leans on. Meanwhile your nervous system is doing its best to hold the pieces together. When that finally cracks, it can feel like something is wrong with you. The truth is much kinder. Nothing is wrong with you. You were navigating pressure, cultural expectations, and emotional labor that no one ever acknowledged.

Christine’s trauma informed, identity aware approach honors that complexity. She helps clients unlearn the shame, self doubt, and anxiety that come from being told to stay strong at all costs. Her work blends EMDR therapy, somatic practices, and relational depth so you can understand what your body has been carrying and finally feel more grounded.

If you are a woman of color searching for a therapist who actually gets it, Christine offers trauma therapy in Chicago and telehealth across Illinois.
You do not have to keep doing this alone.

Click the link in our bio to meet with Christine.








Address

333 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL
60601

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 8pm
Tuesday 8am - 8pm
Wednesday 8am - 8pm
Thursday 8am - 8pm
Friday 8am - 8pm
Saturday 8am - 8pm

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Our Story

We are behavior change counselors helping adults and loved ones coping with self-destructive behaviors. Here are some reasons you may want to work with us:

We are passionate about helping you create immediate and lasting change.

We help you find solutions that lead to the life you desire. Through our research-based methods you will get tools to help you transform your behavior starting from the very first session. Together we collaborate with you to find solutions that lead to relief from the cycle of self-destructive behavior.