Richard Goldin, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, IL

Licensed

Online Counseling

(39 reviews)

LCSW, CADC Richard Goldin

Provides online counseling through BetterHelp

Mental health conditions are real, common and treatable.

And recovery is possible.

Richard Goldin is an experienced, licensed Mental Health Professional who specializes in affordable online therapy offered through our partner, BetterHelp.

More about me

Licensing: LCSW, CADC Years in Practice: 23 State: Illinois

If I had only one piece of advice to share it would be that as human beings we only have one opportunity to experience the universe, and that is in our lifetime. We all have the power to make that experience an amazing journey, lived in gratitude and with positive emotions. My career in mental health/addictions counseling began 25 years ago in mid life. I am very fortunate to have made this career transition. It allowed me to align with an important value of mine, giving something back to the world. Also, I have experienced enormous personal benefit through the changes in my own thinking that lead me to live in gratitude, acceptance and serenity. My career began in business and education, and eventually I was part of a business startup that failed. I became depressed as my business was failing, and for the first time in my life I reached out for help to a therapist. My therapist helped me see that my depression was a result of me extrapolating the business failure to believing I was a personal failure. This experience of how changing one's perspective/attitude about life events can totally shift one's emotional outcome was powerful and life changing. I wanted to be able to help people challenge their own self defeating beliefs and think more effectively and live their lives more effectively. My primary counseling focus is in Cognitive and Dialectic Behavioral Therapy. My training in psychology and addiction counseling has enabled me to be of service to my clients as well changing my own thinking. While we are all going to experience some pain, loss and suffering, with tools and motivation we can work through the negative emotions and get back to positive emotions and make our life journey a better one. Identifying our own values and living according to those values is another key to more happiness and positive emotions. I have embraced spirituality in my life. Living in gratitude and honoring the gift of life by taking the best care on one's physical, emotional and spiritual health leads to an awesome life journey.

About online counseling

Online counseling allows you to receive care from an online mental health practitioner via phone, video chat, or instant messaging. It is convenient for those who may have trouble getting to or would prefer not to have in-person therapy appointments. Starting at $65 per week, online counseling is generally more affordable than in-person counseling. A study by researchers at University of California, Berkeley found that online counseling can be just as effective as face-to-face therapy while being more convenient, affordable, and accessible.

Issues: Stress Anxiety Addictions Anger management Depression Coping with life changes LGBT Relationship issues Family conflicts Trauma and abuse Grief Intimacy-related issues Eating disorders Parenting issues Self esteem Career difficulties Bipolar disorder ADHD
Languages Spoken: English

Services offered

Professional, confidential, and judgment-free

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Please note: It can take up to 24-48 hours to be matched to a therapist.

Reviews for Richard Goldin

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Overall

I am lucky to have been matched with Richard. He has helped me tremendously. He is understanding, compassinate and holds me accountable and challenges me when needed. Being in therapy has been life changing. It is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I'm forever grateful for him.

I have been so pleased with my work with Rick. In a few months, he has helped me move from being an emotional wreck to a much more confident, adventurous, and self-accepting person. Rick gave me many tools to help me through my rough times, but mostly I will credit his empathetic approach to my issues. I always had the sense that he really cared about my "getting better," that he could always see and value positive things in me that I was missing. I will miss our weekly sessions. But I am confident that I can resolve any emotional "blips" in my life by using the tools he gave me and by remembering his confidence in my ability to thrive as the human being I am meant to be.

Richard asked me for a reference, and I'm happy to say it was a wholly positive and successful experience. The Pride self referral section helped me closely define what I wanted from the counseling. My friends and I have often had counseling before, and there are always resonances of the Woody Allen joke "I've been seeing my therapist for 11 years, I think I'll try 7 more and if that doesn't work I'll try Lourdes." Richard is the opposite, more of a coach than an analyst. This was very useful, because I had fairly clear goals. He is good at establishing rapport and obviously has great powers of empathy. He is also very directive (his word). This was always useful and instructive. I will always be glad I had Richard as a therapist, I have become stronger and happier.

After working with Richard for sometime now i understand what it means to live life wholeheartedly. He’s helped me become the creator of my story, through the new perspectives and tools to process, ground and accept the things that come my way. I’m excited to continue to practice everything i have learnt with Richard because it’s shown me that life is beautiful and there’s always something new to experience and learn.

Working with Rick gave me new perspectives that have helped me so much with my feelings of depression. I really appreciated his insights during our sessions and the work we did in identifying my values and reconnecting with my sense of purpose. I now have so many tools going forward to be in a better place in my mental health.

Richard has a calm, comforting approach, as well as a lot of knowledge and experience. In a few short months he helped me to have a much healthier perspective on life and the relationships with my family members. I was feeling lost and finding work and life unsatisfying, with past trauma in a loop in my head. Through talk, exercises, and podcasts, Richard opened my eyes and my heart, to embracing the mystery and chaos of the world and seeing the gift that our lives really are. He took the lead in conversations and made it very easy to take part in therapy. I am happy to have met him and for the impact he's made on my life and the lives of my children.

Richard has a lot of life and professional experience. His perspective has helped me a lot, and his resources are aligned with helping me.

I worked with Richard for just over a month and it was a great experience. I'd never done therapy before so I was a little nervous and had a lot going on in my life at the time. But from the first session, Richard helped me gain perspective and learn tools that allowed me to work through things. He's like talking to a very cool and patient and understanding Dad, which I think worked really well for me. I would highly recommend.

Being a newcomer to therapy, Richard really gave me a breakdown on what to expect and really takes time to both understand me and my situation and provides helpful tools perfectly tailored to my needs. I was very nervous at first but his friendliness and therapy style has allowed me to grow comfortable with this process.

Great advice! He gave me tools to use in my day to day to help me even when we are not in a session.

Rick is an excellent therapist. The tools he shared with me have been instrumental toward overcoming the issues have been facing. Without hesitation and no hyperbole, I can state that I am in a better place than when we started. In addition, he continually hones his professional acumen beyond our sessions. Each time we meet, he provides more tools I can employ. Thank you very much for your help, Rick.

Rick has helped me get through one of the lowest times in my life and I could not be more grateful for the tools and perspectives he provided me with. He was always available to listen and share the lessons he has learned from his past experiences. I always felt safe to share anything with him and appreciated his vast experience in this profession.

Therapy with Rick Goldin had been an immensely positive experience. He's patient, understanding and very attentive to the challenges that I was dealing with. He's helped me to embrace a more positive outlook on life, as well as to navigate the low points and provides tools and paths to take to keep me going forward to being a healthier better person. Amazing therapist!

I would not be where I am today without Richard. He has taught me so many different tools on how to better myself. We focused on grounding, acceptance, working through trauma, fear, anxiety, and creating a healthier lifestyle for myself.. amongst so many other things. He will listen and validate you while also giving you tools on how you can improve. I would’ve never thought I could work through as many problems as I can now. A huge thank you to Richard. He has been the best therapist I have ever seen.

My work with Richard Goldin was nothing short of life-changing. He listened, offered incredibly helpful advice and great new perspectives and through that I was able to get my life on track and move closer towards my life goals. I cannot recommend him enough.

Rick’s attitude towards life is just so inspiring! He is a human with a lots of energy and love for the world. Rick guided me to my better self, his methods are great for someone who feels lost… like I was. Now I have a meaning for everything I do, observe or experience. The changes are huge, priceless, it touched all aspects of my life. The request I came with was completed after only 3 month of work. I don’t know where would I be if I didn’t sign up for a therapy and didn’t meet Rick. I’m just so soo grateful, he’ll always have a special place in my life as a remarkable person who had an impact on me.

Richard has shown me a different outlook on life. He has given me many tools to deal with my anxiety and depression. I never thought that I could connect with a person like Richard and feel comfortable talking about the way my mind experiences life as a whole. I feel that Richard has given me positive re enforcement on the everyday struggles I may face. I have much more gratitude now and the tools that were given to me really help. Thank you Richard for pulling me out of the water!

Richard was excellent therapist to me. For 3 months of working together he helped me to go out from unmotivated, sad and hopeless rut. He was a needed kick to get me on my feet. Rick was really listening to all of my problems, addressing them and adjusting the course of our meetings to deal with specific issues. I love recommended podcasts or texts that enriched the experience. Age gap wasn't the problem (24 here) and he has more energy and positivity than most people of my age.

It was amazing to work with Richard!He helped me get out of the awful things that made me depressed so badly. He always gave me the right tools for my problems. I was avoiding my problems for too long they started piled up on my shoulders that I couldn’t handle it anymore. But with the tools he taught me, I’m a different person now.I’m getting Brighter and stronger each day. I can’t say thank enough to Richard! Three of us now back to our ship and started sailing again with his help successfully! And more,It doesn’t matter if you are foreigner with foreign culture. :) Thank you again!

For half a year, he’s been my number one support system. I stop crying alone knowing that he’s here for me. His advice help me gain a support system of my own from people around me that I cared for and cared for me. These sessions are life changing and will forever shaped me into a nicer and calmer human being. Thank you Richard.

Working with Rich, I made significant progress in my mental health and interpersonal relationships. Rich provided me with the right tools and techniques to help me manage my anxiety, life stresses, and depression. After working with Rich, I noticed significant improvements in myself and my social relationships. Rich’s patience, guidance, and understanding have enabled me to make life-lasting positive changes. I would highly recommend Rich, and I am grateful that he is there if I need any future help. Thank you!

I am grateful for mister Richard Goldin in helping me embrace myself and recommending me some materials to help me along my journey a thumbs up for his services.

Richard has been an incredible navigator in my life so far, I am very happy to be working with him.

Joining BetterHelp was one of the best decisions I have made. My therapist is understanding, caring, and devoted. He asks me deep insightful questions that are really helpful. He always offers useful resources for topics we discuss and talk about. He helped me come up with my purpose statements for different aspects of my life. His offers genuine advice. I really appreciate his professionalism and help.

Rick has been very helpful over the last few months helping me to work through and accept things within my life. I was quite nervous going into therapy as I had never done it before, he is really easy to talk to and I found our sessions enjoyable. Thanks Rick.

Rick was very helpful for me change my perspective on life and overcome difficult times. He was able to help me identify my purpose and life values, which has greatly impacted my day-to-day joy. I highly recommend Rick to anyone that is willing to put in the work and wants to live a more meaningful life.

In the more than 6 months that I've been working with him, Rick has been excellent in working with me, understanding what my goals are, and providing me with all the tools and resources necessary to achieve those goals. As someone who struggles with severe ADHD, he helped steer me towards actionable steps I can take to manage my ADHD effectively, so that it doesn't get in the way of living a healthy and productive life. I truly felt a sense of compassion coming from Rick whenever I approached him with anything. I couldn't recommend him enough and would love to work with him again if I ever chose to seek counseling again.

Richard was so kind, professional, empathetic and helpful. For my situation, I was looking for practical strategies to deal with some problems. He was able to understand my situation easily, and offer a ton of valuable information, resources and and guidance. I'm sure he can be helpful for people in a similar situation.

I found working with Richard to be extremely beneficial, helping me to become more mindful in my drinking habits. Not only is he experienced with addiction and substance abuse issues but he was helpful in further guiding my life philosophy. I particularly enjoyed his "homework" of interesting and helpful podcasts. I would work with him again.

Working with Richard has been an absolutely effective experience. He has many tools to offer, and I found that his goal-oriented approach helped me succeed in accomplish progress. Richard has more than tools at his disposal; he cares. I always felt he gave me his whole attention, and cared about me as an individual being. I feel confident that anyone can find Richard to be helpful in changing how they perceive situations, and emotions! I will forever be grateful for the work he did with me in our short time together navigating my issues of grief, shame, depression, and addiction.

This was my first experience participating in therapy and Rick was great; he really listened to me, understood my biggest concerns on what I wanted to improve, and gave me very helpful tools to overcome those things. His approach is very mindfulness-heavy, which I found very useful in dealing with anxiety and being able to more wholeheartedly enjoy the life that I live.

Working with Rick has been great. He is great at understanding what is important in you and how to deal with anything that is arising in your life during the week. I enjoyed our weekly chats and would recommend him to anyone looking for a councillor.

My experience with BetterHelp Online Counseling was excellent. My counselor, Richard Goldin, helped me significantly. I'm 63 and have been semi-retired for 8 years. I had been mildly depressed, due to significant challenges and struggles in my life - probably common to people my age, and other (family) reasons - perhaps not so common. Mr. Goldin's insight and recommendations, including suggested books and podcasts and other resources, were extremely helpful. He's very realistic, practical, wise and pragmatic. Key to my positive experience, was Mr. Goldin helping me identify my life's purpose and values. This was huge ! He also helped me realize my biggest problem involved my (current and future) relationships with my family of origin. This too was huge ! Thanks to Mr Goldin's insight, enlightenment, recommendations / help, I'm better equipped, to meet my particular challenges and struggles, more effectively. I'm happy to say, I'm no longer mildly depressed. I'm also much more optimistic about my life going forward, than I was before the counseling started. I would not be this way now, and things I'm sure would have gotten much worse for me, without his help. Thanks again !! Sincerely, John - from central Illinois

From our first meeting, I knew that Rick understood me. He understood exactly what I needed, even when I couldn't articulate it myself. It's like that saying 'give an inch, take a mile' but in a good way -- I'd tell him something and he'd just run with it. Rick knew exactly what podcasts I needed to listen to, what books I needed to read, where I was struggling, etc. We've only had a handful of sessions, but I've learned so much from him and I am so fortunate to work with him. BIG thank you, Rick!!

Rick was exactly what I needed. He is an wonderful man that help me start to accept things in my life that I can’t control. It allowed me to be more grateful for all the all of the positive aspects of my life. Thank you!

I truly appreciate Richard’s help, this pass months has become so much easier to breathe because he truly understands what I need to get pass my obstacles. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you for your support!

Taking the step to schedule weekly live sessions with Rick really put me on the right path to living my life with purpose and gratitude. The worksheets and other "assignments" such as listening to relevant podcasts were helpful in keeping me engaged and working towards cultivating a life with purpose. Rick also recommended 2 books that I plan on reading as well. One thing that makes Rick relatable is that there was a time when he also wasn't fully living his life with purpose and defined values (or a sense of a higher power). He cultivated his purpose, defined his values, and identified a higher power that makes sense to him. I've done my first draft of a life purpose/values statement, and it's something that I'll likely continue to modify as I go thru life. Something I learned from Rick that really resonated with me: Although alcohol in particular isn't an issue for me, most of the 12 step program in AA is to help with a thinking problem, not drinking problem. I have been abusing marijuana to cope with anxiety and depression. Rick's insight has helped me look at fixing things thru a different lense. I'm working on being more mindful with the decisions I make. And I'm creating good/healthy habits while working on eliminating the bad habits. Thanks Rick!

This being my first time doing this it has been a new different experience for me in a good way. Especially having the pleasure of have Richard as my counselor, who listens and goes an extra mile to suggest activities to do so as to help me get better. Thank you so much I do not take it for granted.

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