Welcome

Therapy is a brave and vulnerable undertaking. I hold this with the utmost respect as you come to me with your needs and longings.

I believe that everyone, given the right support, has the capacity to heal. I am humbled and motivated by the healing I have thus far witnessed in my career.

I will partner with you to create a safe space in which we can together understand and explore the dynamics at play in your life. My work is grounded in an understanding of the neurobiology of attachment; lasting change happens when you are in a compassionate connection with a safe other. Together we will hold and honor that your distress can be understood in the context of your life story, some of which was not of your doing.

I will support you in working through your experience in a manageable way, so that you can track and feel the changes you are seeking. I believe that the goal of therapy is not just to alleviate symptoms, but to live a life of greater enlivenment in the present.

Coming January 2025

Relational, integrative case consultation group forming in Oak Park, Jan 2025

This in-person, closed group will meet for 90 min/month. We will use the support of community to explore ethical treatment from a relationally based and integrative model of practice. Using an anti-oppressive lens we will deepen into case conceptualization and collaborative treatment, using current research and theory in trauma and attachment to inform our work with all clients. Open to fully licensed clinicians who have been in practice at least 5+ years.

First Tuesday of the month: 9:00–10:30 am, beginning in January 2025.

Please contact Meghan with interest:
meghanreillylcsw@gmail.com, (708) 689-3041

Trauma focused case consultation group in Oak Park

This in-person, closed group meets for 90 min/month throughout the academic year. We use the support of community to explore trauma-informed practice. Using a trauma-informed lens and supplemental readings, which focus on current research and theory in trauma and attachment and its application to clinical practice, we deepen into treating complex trauma.

First Fridays of the month: 9:30–11:00am, September–June.

Group is FULL this year. New applicants welcome to inquire for  September 2025. Please contact Meghan with interest:
meghanreillylcsw@gmail.com, (708) 689-3041

Experience

I have a background in individual outpatient treatment, couples and family work, and treatment within the medical setting, including working with parents who have adopted children, and with parents during and after their children’s hospitalizations in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

I draw from over 20 years of clinical practice in my treatment approach, and work from an integrative model of both relational approaches and body-centered interventions, to provide trauma-informed care.

I work with clients who struggle with anxiety, racing thoughts, depressed mood, conflict in relationships, chronic pain, difficulty regulating in relationship, trouble with intimacy, parenting concerns, ambivalence about certain aspects of their lives and more. I specialize in the treatment of complex trauma and dissociative disorders.

My approach to couples work prioritizes helping you foster increased emotional safety within your relationship. This can take the form of helping you with your communication style, growing your capacity to tolerate and discuss difficult topics, struggles with intimacy, parenting, life planning and more. Our work together will be grounded in helping you and your partner stay present and regulated enough for meaningful and lasting change.

I enjoy working with both individuals and couples.

For Professionals

In addition to therapy, I provide clinical consultation to other therapists, developing clinicians, and to organizations, helping them integrate relationally grounded, trauma-informed and body-centered practices into their work.

I receive consistent feedback that I am a knowledgeable, relatable and engaging presenter and facilitator. I enjoy providing interactive presentations/workshops on many topics, including:

I facilitate Integrated Practices for Healing from Trauma (IP) groups for clients. These trauma groups focus on understanding the neurobiological effects of trauma, traumatic activation and body-centered practice that support healing. I also offer workshops for clinicians looking to understand the work of IP and deepen their own capacities for presence through the practices, to provide trauma-informed care.

Trauma-Informed Care

Traumatic events of the past, often live on in the body and mind, and impact the capacity to be present to life in a satisfying way. Trauma disrupts central nervous sytem regulation and capacity for embodiment. Sometimes folks end up feeling like they are re-experiencing something similar to what happened then, as if it’s happening now, even when it isn’t. The body has ingenious ways of adapting to overwhelming experience in an attempt to survive; the trouble is that in the present, these very strategies that were so helpful back then, often have costs that are too big now.

Trauma treatment is grounded in working in the present moment. It helps folks reconnect to their internal experience in safe ways through manageable, modulated work regulating central nervous system arousal. Trauma-informed care helps bring folks from functioning in survival mode into a life that has room for connection, flexibility, and even joy.

The therapist’s capacity for compassionate stance and presence in their own body in each session is imperative. Trauma-informed care also holds an awareness of power differentials in the therapy space, the role of different identities and cultural perspectives, and that oppression exists in our society in many forms—including racial trauma, anti-fat culture, misogyny and bias and hate toward sexuality and gender. It acknowledges that some folks are not safe in the present moment—that trauma can be in one’s past and in one’s present.

Acknowledging the impact of oppression through the life story is crucial to validating and working with the reality that human suffering is most always created by harm from the outside. Trauma-informed care holds the entirety of your story, as it is held in your narrative and in your body, with exquisite care.

Contact Me

You can contact me via phone at (708) 689-3041 or email: meghanreillylcsw@gmail.com. Please be aware that email is not a confidential means of communication and consider this as you communicate with me. I will make every effort to keep emailed information private; however, very personal information is best shared by phone, on paper, or in person.

Mission Statement

My practice is grounded in a commitment to ethical mental health treatment across a wide range of presenting concerns, with a speciality in the treatment of trauma. This includes an ongoing commitment to deconstructing implicitly held biases and acknowledging the impact of systems of oppression and the harm and suffering they cause individuals, families and communities. My practice seeks to contribute to the growth of a more compassionate humanity, where each of us has equitable access to resources (including anti-oppressive mental health treatment) for a life of presence with joy.