Debra K. Hirschberg, Hope Reins

Debra K. Hirschberg View Specialties

Therapy Coupon. Counseling Discount.
Free 30 Minute Initial Consultation

When you begin working with me, my plan for you is that you will feel safe and respected. I believe in coming alsongside you to help you achieve your goals. I am deeply committed to helping your rediscover your strengths and creative solutions so you can experience joy and freedom again. We utilize a Christian approach for anxiety counseling and counseling for depression but are respectful of all faiths and journeys. Because I am committed to finding ways to help you get "unstuck".


I offer a comprehensive range of services including assessment and diagnostics, individual counseling, family therapy, coaching, and specialized support for parents of children and teens. Sessions are available through convenient virtual counseling, as well as through intensives, retreats, and customized healing programs designed for those who want deeper, focused progress through brainspotting and equine therapy.
 
In addition to integrating your faith, I am trained in Brainspotting, which is is a neuroscience-informed therapy that accesses and processes trauma stored deep in the brain and body. It allows for profound, lasting change without forcing you to relive overwhelming memories. Whether used alone or integrated with equine work, intensives, or retreats, it offers a powerful pathway to clarity, release, and emotional freedom.
 
I also offer  Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy intensives and retreats on a customized basis. Working with horses provides immediate, honest feedback that reveals patterns in communication, boundaries, leadership, and emotional regulation and helps you see solutions. Rather than retelling painful stories, you are invited to explore new skills and solutions in real time. Horses make the invisible visible—their authentic responses help uncover the emotional and relational patterns contributing to your “stuckness.” This hands-on experience is especially impactful for clients healing from trauma, anxiety, attachment wounds, and long-term overwhelm.

  
Training:  Debra is the Executive Director of Hope Reins and  is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 30 years of experience in the field of mental health. She graduated from University of Illinois with Honors in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Between her undergraduate and graduate training, she worked as an Addictions Counselor and then as an Adolescent Mental Health Counselor.  Her passion for children and teens led her back to school to  specialize in marital and family therapy at UIC. In 1990, Debra graduated with Honors from Jane Addams College of Social Work.  Having an unwavering desire to provide therapy that was effective, Debra began to explore alternative therapies to help those clients she felt she wasn't reaching. She began to integrate art therapy and discovered wilderness and equine assisted psychotherapy. In October 2003, she earned her  certification from EAGALA as a Clinical Specialist in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and founded Hope Reins in 2005. 
 

While Debra loves being a therapist, the truth is that she really, really loves being a wife to her husband  and a mother to her "grown up" girls and a mimi to her grandbabies. They along with a delightful Doberman and 2 feisty kitties live in an old Victorian that is forever being "fixed up".  

     

     

Debra K. Hirschberg Reaches

Hampshire IL
Crystal Lake IL

Our purpose is to help people everywhere find great counselors and psychologists. Everyone can have a new start in life.

Copyright © 2025 by Theravive.

Theravive does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Read here for more info.