Meet Mollie

Mollie Bass, LMFT, PMH-C

Licensed in Illinois

Relationships can start to feel complicated long before they look broken from the outside.

You may be preparing for marriage and realizing there are conversations you no longer want to avoid. You may be adjusting to parenthood and feeling the strain of sleep deprivation, shifting roles, resentment, or the quiet grief of no longer recognizing parts of yourself. You may love your partner and still feel distant, unseen, or tired of having the same conversation in slightly different forms.

I work with individuals and couples navigating the emotional, practical, and relational work of connection. My focus includes premarital counseling, couples therapy, relationship therapy, complex family dynamics, the transition to parenthood, and helping partners find their way back to each other after seasons of distance, conflict, or change.

I also specialize in perinatal mental health, including postpartum depression and anxiety, fertility challenges, pregnancy and infant loss, and the identity shifts that can come with becoming a parent. These experiences can be tender, disorienting, and often more complicated than people expect. My work is to help you slow down, name what is happening, and begin making sense of it without minimizing how much you have been carrying.

A significant part of my work centers on the mental load and division of labor in relationships. I help individuals and couples name and rebalance the often invisible parts of relational labor—the expectations, responsibilities, planning, remembering, anticipating, and emotional energy that can leave one or both partners feeling unseen, overextended, or disconnected.

I’m a direct and grounded therapist who believes honesty and warmth can coexist. I do not sit behind a wall. I bring transparency, humor, reflection, and active engagement into the room. Together, we will look at what is working, what is not, and what needs to shift so you can move toward relationships that feel more connected, honest, and sustainable.

In our work together, I use a relational, attachment-based, and systems-oriented lens. That means we will pay attention not only to what is happening on the surface, but also to the patterns underneath: how conflict escalates, how needs go unspoken, how family history shows up in present relationships, and how protection can sometimes look like withdrawal, criticism, resentment, or overfunctioning.

My approach integrates Family Systems Theory, Attachment Theory, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy, and practical tools for communication and repair. I support clients in advocating for themselves, setting boundaries, reconnecting with core values, and building new ways of relating that feel authentic rather than forced.

With couples, I combine the emotional depth of EFT with practical, skills-based tools from the Gottman Method to strengthen communication, rebuild trust, and help partners better understand what is happening between them. For couples preparing for marriage, I also offer Prepare/Enrich premarital counseling to help partners have meaningful conversations about expectations, conflict, intimacy, family, finances, values, and the life they are building together.

My credentials

I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist based in Chicago, providing virtual therapy for clients throughout Illinois. I hold a Master’s degree in Child Development and Family Studies with a specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University Northwest.

I’m a certified Perinatal Mental Health Specialist (PMH-C) through Postpartum Support International, trained in Level 2 Gottman Method Couples Therapy, and certified in Prepare/Enrich premarital counseling. I’m also an active member of Postpartum Support International.