Todd Esterburg, LISW, LLC:
Talk Therapy to Replace discomfort with harmony
Through our professional relationship it’s my hope that you experience increased effectiveness and empowerment in many areas of your life.
My Story
For my entire life I have enjoyed connecting with people and solving problems. My small counseling practice in Rocky River on the west side of Cleveland evolved from decades of work with individuals and families trying to create a new vision for their daily lives. I combine these experiences with a formal education obtained from John Carroll University (BSBA Finance) and Cleveland State University (MSW) to provide client focused and results driven counseling services. I’m a Licensed Independent Social Worker (LISW) in the state of Ohio, providing in person and telehealth counseling services. I’m also registered to provide telehealth for residents of Florida.
I live and work on the west side of Cleveland with my family. When I’m not at work I enjoy connecting with family and nature as often as I can through activities such as gardening, camping, cooking, woodwork, and other assorted adventures.
The services I offer
I provide talk therapy, as a process by which clients are able to examine their lives and increase their feelings of effectiveness.
CBT assists the individual with connecting their feelings, thoughts and actions so that they may better understand themselves as a whole person, and therefore increase self determination in their lives. This allows more congruence with actions and beliefs.
Talk therapy is an opportunity to utilize a professional, confidential, unbiased relationship as a tool for a personal change process. Often people identify with anxiety and/or depression, leading them to seek out talk therapy. While there are many theoretical frameworks that professional, talk therapists draw from, the primary theoretical framework that I use is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT assists the individual with connecting their feelings, thoughts and actions so that they may better understand themselves as a whole person, and therefore increase self determination in their lives where their actions and beliefs are congruent. This awareness of whole person is best developed by focusing on four primary areas of CBT: self soothing, mindfulness, cognitive distortions, and personal narrative. As the aforementioned congruence occurs, uncomfortable feeling and thoughts associated with anxiety and/or depression decrease.
I deliver this experience with both in person/face-to-face counseling, and a secure Telehealth interface, depending on the preferences of the client and the needs of the situation. Some of my clients move fluidly back-and-forth between the two modalities regularly and others prefer to stick with a chosen interface.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Physical Soothing
Being more aware of physical sensations and how they help calm us down is an important skill to develop.
Physical Soothing
When we practice increasing awareness and appropriate responsiveness to our discomfort, we begin to not only feel better, but also embody a belief that we can effectively take care of our needs. This is the foundational awareness that we layer progress on in cognitive behavioral therapy
Mindfulness
When we are in a mindful place, we are present, and realizing the most actual control over our lives.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is often simply described as being in the present moment. We begin to realize that our uncomfortable feelings and thoughts exist in the past and/or in the future, though we are experiencing them in the present. By focusing on the present, we position ourselves in a place of legitimate empowerment to embrace our lives and a change process.
Cognitive Distortions
All of us develop unhealthy patterns of thought. It is very helpful to better spot these so that we can substititue with healthier ways of thinking.
Cognitive Distortions
As we develop increased abilities to stay present focused and care for ourselves, our thoughts start to become more and more clear. By labeling these thoughts we are able to identify levels of intensity and impact on our mood more easily. We are also able to craft replacements for our unhealthy/distorted thoughts and take our self care to a level of increased personal effectiveness.
Personal Narrative
We combine all of these skills together to more deeply understand our personal narrative; past, present, and future.
Personal Narrative
With patience and commitment we have become able to more clearly see our life path: where we’ve come from, where we are now, and where we’d like to head. No longer are we in a mainly reactive place. We have improved our awareness in many areas and our ability to explore and communicate this awareness with ourselves and others. Feelings and thoughts have become opportunities to deepen the authentic richness of life.
Cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT) is based on better realizing the connection between our feelings, thoughts, and actions. The more that we recognize the connection, the more empowered we are to impact the way that we feel and the choices that we make.
Reimbursement Information
I offer a fee for service model for clients. This means that there is an hourly rate that I am reimbursed for our therapeutic time together. I find that this increases confidentiality and flexibility for clients, as such a model eliminates insurance companies from the equation, specifically their desire to control or influence any of our process.
My clients are able to make payments for sessions on their unique Simple Practice, client portal with a credit card at any time, or during a session with me by either check or credit card. My rates are $115 per 55 minute session and $75 per 30 minute session, including any contact longer than 7 minutes. 30 minute sessions are only conducted as phone calls, while 55 minute sessions can be either face to face or via a Telehealth interface, such as video link or phone. This same fee structure is applied to extraordinary document preparation.