Dr. Ann Maureen McCaughan, LCPC

Dr. Ann Maureen McCaughan holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Counseling and Counselor Education and brings 18 years of clinical and teaching experience. She is an Illinois Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) who has worked as a counselor, supervisor, and counselor educator. Her background includes helping people navigate stress, anxiety, addiction, relationship concerns, grief, and life transitions.

She began focusing on young adults in college but broadened her work to include people across the lifespan. That expansion led her to include aging and geriatric issues among her areas of focus, along with caregiver stress and other concerns that come later in life. She balances clinical work with a full-time role teaching counseling, which keeps her knowledge current.

Her style is straightforward and caring. She treats clients as the experts on their own lives and acts as a sounding board while helping them set practical goals. Sessions tend to be gentle but direct, with attention to spotting unhelpful habits and testing new strategies.

Clinically she draws on attachment-based ideas, client-centered work, cognitive behavioral methods, emotionally-focused approaches, and existential perspectives. She uses these to address problems like identity concerns, trauma, and coping with major life changes.

Dr. McCaughan says she integrates clients' personal values into therapy. She aims to help people increase life satisfaction and move toward goals they choose. If someone is ready to consider change, she works with them to make it happen.

How her approaches translate to online therapy

Attachment-Based Therapy emphasizes relationships and how early bonds shape current patterns. In practice this looks at how people connect and repair ruptures, which can help with intimacy, attachment issues, and caregiver stress. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on the person's own experience and priorities. The therapist listens with empathy, reflects what she hears, and helps clients find their own path forward, often useful for identity and life-change concerns. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) targets thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going. It uses practical exercises and experiments to reduce anxiety, manage mood, and change habits.

Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. Dr. McCaughan will collaborate with clients to figure out what methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. That process can include trying one approach and adjusting it over time.

Confirm which session formats are currently offered before booking, since the biography does not list specific online formats. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and reduce travel time. It also lets people use video or audio depending on comfort and bandwidth. Licensed professionals can adapt attachment, client-centered, and CBT tools to remote sessions so progress can continue even when meeting from different locations.