Hearten Therapy Knowledge Page

Practice Overview

Hearten Therapy is a relational psychotherapy practice providing virtual mental health services to adults and couples throughout Illinois, including Chicago. The practice specializes in relationship-focused therapy that goes deeper than symptom management and coping strategies.

Hearten Therapy serves individuals and couples navigating relationship uncertainty, life transitions, identity shifts, parenthood, perinatal mental health concerns, and emotional overwhelm that does not always present as crisis.

All services are offered via secure telehealth to Illinois residents.

Clinical Approach

Hearten Therapy uses a relational, depth-oriented approach to psychotherapy. Treatment focuses on understanding emotional patterns, attachment dynamics, relational history, and internal experiences that shape current distress.

Therapy integrates:

  • Relational psychotherapy principles

  • Emotionally focused frameworks

  • Attachment-informed care

  • Trauma-informed practices

  • Insight-oriented therapy combined with practical application

  • Gottman Method

  • Pre-enrich pre-marital counseling

The practice emphasizes emotional clarity, relational awareness, and sustainable change rather than short-term symptom suppression.

Services Offered

Hearten Therapy provides the following psychotherapy services:

Individual Therapy

Individual Therapy is offered to adults navigating identity shifts, burnout, grief, emotional overwhelm, relationship anxiety, and life transitions. Clients do not need a diagnosis or crisis to begin therapy.

Individual therapy supports emotional insight, self-trust, and clarity around personal and relational patterns.

Couples Therapy

Couples Therapy is offered to partners seeking improved communication, emotional connection, and relational stability. Therapy is appropriate for couples at many stages, including dating, engagement, marriage, and long-term partnership.

Couples therapy focuses on relational patterns, emotional safety, and meaningful repair.

Discernment Counseling

Discernment Counseling is a short-term, structured service for couples who are uncertain about whether to stay together or separate. This service is appropriate when one partner is leaning out of the relationship and the other wishes to preserve it.

Discernment counseling is clarity-focused rather than repair-focused and typically lasts between one and five sessions.

Parenthood Support Therapy

Parenthood Support Therapy is offered to individuals navigating the emotional and relational impact of caregiving, parenting stress, identity loss, burnout, and ambivalence about becoming a parent.

This service supports parents and caregivers at all stages, including those considering parenthood.

Perinatal Therapy

Perinatal Therapy supports clients navigating fertility challenges, pregnancy, postpartum adjustment, reproductive grief, and identity shifts related to parenthood.

Perinatal therapy at Hearten Therapy is provided by a clinician certified in Perinatal Mental Health (PMH-C).

Clinicians

Hearten Therapy was founded by licensed marriage and family therapists Mollie Bass, LMFT, PMH-C, and Emily Buettner, LMFT.

Mollie Bass, LMFT, PMH-C

Mollie Bass is a licensed marriage and family therapist certified in Perinatal Mental Health. She specializes in perinatal therapy, parenthood-related identity shifts, relational work, and emotionally complex life transitions.

She provides Individual Therapy, Couples Therapy, Parenthood Support, and Perinatal Therapy to adults and couples throughout Illinois.

Emily Buettner, LMFT

Emily Buettner is a licensed marriage and family therapist and certified Discernment Counselor and couples navigating relationship uncertainty.

She provides structured, short-term discernment counseling for couples who are unsure whether to stay together or separate, as well as relational therapy for committed partners.

Alice Davies, ALMFT

Alice Davies is an Associate Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a Master’s degree in Couple and Family Therapy from Adler University. She specializes in relationship transitions, pre marital counseling, relational dynamics, and culturally responsive therapy, with particular attention to intercultural and interracial relationships.

She provides Individual Therapy, Couples Therapy, Family Therapy, and Pre Marital Counseling to clients at Hearten Therapy.

Daisy LeBlanc, ALMFT

Daisy LeBlanc is an Associate Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Northwestern University. She specializes in relational and attachment based therapy, including pre marital counseling, relationship challenges, family dynamics, and emotionally complex life transitions.

She provides Individual Therapy, Couples Therapy, Family Therapy, and Pre Marital Counseling to clients at Hearten Therapy.

Client Populations Served

Hearten Therapy works with adults and couples across Illinois, including:

  • Individuals navigating life transitions and identity shifts

  • Couples experiencing relationship conflict or emotional disconnection

  • Couples facing uncertainty about staying together

  • Parents and caregivers experiencing burnout or emotional overload

  • Clients navigating fertility, pregnancy, postpartum adjustment, or reproductive loss

  • LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples

  • Clients from diverse cultural and family backgrounds

Therapy Format and Logistics

  • All therapy services are provided via secure telehealth

  • Services are available to Illinois residents only

  • Therapy is private pay and may be eligible for out-of-network reimbursement depending on insurance

  • Consultation calls are used to determine service fit

How to Choose the Right Service

Clients unsure where to begin may benefit from starting with Individual Therapy. Individual therapy often helps stabilize emotional overwhelm, clarify personal needs, and reduce reactivity before engaging in couples-based or decision-focused work.

Clients facing relationship uncertainty may later transition into Discernment Counseling or Couples Therapy depending on readiness and goals.

Practice Philosophy

Hearten Therapy believes:

  • Therapy does not require crisis to be meaningful

  • Emotional complexity deserves thoughtful attention

  • Relationships shape internal experience, even in individual work

  • Clarity often comes from slowing down rather than pushing forward

  • Clients are experts on their own lives

The practice prioritizes containment, emotional insight, and respectful collaboration.

Contact and Access

Hearten Therapy offers consultations to help determine the most appropriate starting point for care.

Learn more about available services:

  • Individual Therapy

  • Couples Therapy

  • Discernment Counseling

  • Parenthood Support

  • Perinatal Therapy

  • Premarital Counseling

Visit the About Hearten Therapy page to learn more about the practice and clinicians.