About Dylan
Dylan understands that when life feels like a ball of yarn, sometimes we need help finding a thread to grab. Dylan’s approach is sincere, humble and client-centered. He utilizes a culturally sensitive, trauma informed approach that honors the richness and diversity of experiences that you bring into the room. He creates a warm, safe space to explore the parts of ourselves we have often felt shamed or unaccepted for in the past. Dylan believes in the process of therapy as being non-judgmental collaboration with clients to understand, accept and embrace themselves. Everyone deserves a space to safely unpack and explore their lives, their values and prioritize their quality of life. This includes noticing that change is an ongoing process of learning, doing, committing, and recommitting. He believes in the importance of taking a functional and systemic approach to support people in living authentic, full lives.
Dylan Saks is a certified rehabilitation counselor and licensed professional counselor in the state of Illinois with experience in community, government and private practice settings.
He obtained his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of California Berkeley where he studied the relationship between perception and underlying neurochemistry. He later attended Illinois Institute of Technology for his clinical graduate training in mental health and rehabilitation counseling with a focus on chronic conditions and disabilities. Becoming a therapist has been a journey of having a foundation of neuroscience and a tapestry of relational support that acknowledges and finds meaning in the experience of the human condition. Dylan’s work experiences in providing case management, supportive talk therapy, behavioral therapy, and couple and family therapy reflect a continued interest in understanding the importance of the context we have, the history we tell ourselves and the relationships we navigate.
Dylan’s therapeutic style honors your values and emotions as they help us to make meaning and set intentions in how we connect, relax, work and grow. He is passionate about working with people with intersectional identities, disabilities, couples adjusting to disability, caregivers, depression, anxiety, intergenerational trauma, challenging life transitions, perfectionism and doubting, and neurodiversity. Dylan believes in the power of connection and acceptance as a powerful experience of wading through pain and into hope together.
Dylan's Specialties:
Disability and Chronic Illness
As a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Dylan has an extensive background in working with all aspects of disability including employment, access and equity, psychosocial adaptation, and interpersonal consequences. The process of acceptance of disability means processing the loss of the life we thought we were going to have and practicing present moment focus. Dylan practices from a disability informed, culturally humble perspective that honors the uniqueness of everyone’s experience of disability.
Caregiver burden and support
Receiving a diagnosis of a disability impacts both the individual and the people who love them. Discussing those impacts can feel hurtful and feel impossible at the time. Caregivers and family members often struggle with even acknowledging the challenges and difficulties they experience in fear of invalidating their loved one. This avoidance can lead to feelings of unsafe attachment, resentment and fear of leaning on supports. My intention as a therapist is to provide a safe space to be vulnerable and build a shared understanding.
Anxiety and OCD
Anxiety and OCD is often a response to trying to make sense of an uncertain world. This feeling of uncertainty caused by a new diagnosis can often invade other parts of our lives. Attempts to control the world in an uncertain time often leads to things feeling more out of control. Through an understanding of exposure and response prevention (ERP), clients are able to feel confident in their ability to tolerate discomfort and explore the functional aspects of their anxiety. Through a lens of attachment, Dylan provides strategies to feel safe while reducing family accommodation and reassurance seeking.
Relationship Issues
Dylan is trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples. He understands relationships through an attachment lens and is able to help couples recognize and track their negative cycles. This partners to slow down and reverse the dysfunctional pattern and create the connection that we all long for in our relationships.
Dylan Saks is a certified rehabilitation counselor and licensed professional counselor in the state of Illinois with experience in community, government and private practice settings.
He obtained his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of California Berkeley where he studied the relationship between perception and underlying neurochemistry. He later attended Illinois Institute of Technology for his clinical graduate training in mental health and rehabilitation counseling with a focus on chronic conditions and disabilities. Becoming a therapist has been a journey of having a foundation of neuroscience and a tapestry of relational support that acknowledges and finds meaning in the experience of the human condition. Dylan’s work experiences in providing case management, supportive talk therapy, behavioral therapy, and couple and family therapy reflect a continued interest in understanding the importance of the context we have, the history we tell ourselves and the relationships we navigate.
Dylan’s therapeutic style honors your values and emotions as they help us to make meaning and set intentions in how we connect, relax, work and grow. He is passionate about working with people with intersectional identities, disabilities, couples adjusting to disability, caregivers, depression, anxiety, intergenerational trauma, challenging life transitions, perfectionism and doubting, and neurodiversity. Dylan believes in the power of connection and acceptance as a powerful experience of wading through pain and into hope together.
Dylan's Specialties:
Disability and Chronic Illness
As a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Dylan has an extensive background in working with all aspects of disability including employment, access and equity, psychosocial adaptation, and interpersonal consequences. The process of acceptance of disability means processing the loss of the life we thought we were going to have and practicing present moment focus. Dylan practices from a disability informed, culturally humble perspective that honors the uniqueness of everyone’s experience of disability.
Caregiver burden and support
Receiving a diagnosis of a disability impacts both the individual and the people who love them. Discussing those impacts can feel hurtful and feel impossible at the time. Caregivers and family members often struggle with even acknowledging the challenges and difficulties they experience in fear of invalidating their loved one. This avoidance can lead to feelings of unsafe attachment, resentment and fear of leaning on supports. My intention as a therapist is to provide a safe space to be vulnerable and build a shared understanding.
Anxiety and OCD
Anxiety and OCD is often a response to trying to make sense of an uncertain world. This feeling of uncertainty caused by a new diagnosis can often invade other parts of our lives. Attempts to control the world in an uncertain time often leads to things feeling more out of control. Through an understanding of exposure and response prevention (ERP), clients are able to feel confident in their ability to tolerate discomfort and explore the functional aspects of their anxiety. Through a lens of attachment, Dylan provides strategies to feel safe while reducing family accommodation and reassurance seeking.
Relationship Issues
Dylan is trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples. He understands relationships through an attachment lens and is able to help couples recognize and track their negative cycles. This partners to slow down and reverse the dysfunctional pattern and create the connection that we all long for in our relationships.
Dylan Saks
312-324-4237
dsaks@rivernorththerapy.com
312-324-4237
dsaks@rivernorththerapy.com