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Betsy Nettleton is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in Chicago with over twenty years of experience. She is currently completing her analytic training at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. She is available in person and online downtown Chicago.
Betsy works with people who feel persistently at odds with themselves, carrying something troubling that doesn't ease up, or something painful that conscious insight alone hasn't quite reached. She also works with people who have been knocked off balance by life circumstance, whether it be a more obvious difficulty (a loss of some kind) or just a sudden change from the ordinary. Rather than focusing only on the past, she also pays close attention to what's happening in the moment, both in life and in sessions. And rather than helping you manage or avoid what's difficult, she helps you actually stay with the hard feelings and tolerate the uncertainty of wondering: What comes next? Will this end? What might it mean? She values the capacity to remain curious about one's experiences, even the upsetting ones, and works to help convey this attitude in sessions.
With this kind of attention, over time, patterns that were hard to name gradually become visible. This can change not just how you feel, but how you relate to others and even yourself. Symptoms may ease, but what tends to change even more fundamentally is how you experience yourself: in conversations, in relationships, in choices you make.
Years of Experience: 20 years
Anxiety - Sometimes anxiety is internal: worry that won't quiet, dread before ordinary situations, panic that arrives without warning. Sometimes it lives in interactions: leaving conversations unsettled, never quite sure how you came across. And sometimes it's harder to locate, it’s just a formless sense that something terrible is coming, without being able to say what.
Depression - A heaviness that doesn't lift. Going through the motions. Somehow the things that used to matter stopped mattering. Good things arrive but don't feel good, or the feeling is just gone almost as soon as it comes. Sometimes there's sadness. Often it's just bleakness or emptiness.
Sensitivity - Reactions that feel outsized, a tendency to register everything intensely, whether it is noise, physical sensation, the emotional temperature of a room. The world feels genuinely loud in ways others don't seem to notice. There’s just not much of a buffer between you and everything coming in.
Imposter syndrome - A persistent sense of not quite being yourself, like you're performing. It might not even feel entirely fake, perhaps more like a version of you that's been turned up to meet what the situation requires. But there's still a waiting to be found out, and it's exhausting.
Rumination - TThe thought or worry you can't stop returning to. The conversation you keep replaying. Or maybe the conviction that if you just think about it a little more you'll finally figure it out.
Relationship issues - So much of what makes life feel meaningful happens in relationships. But relationships can also be a source of tremendous pain. The same patterns keep showing up: with partners, family, friends. You find yourself in situations you didn't choose and can't quite get out of.
This provider can support you in getting reimbursement from your insurance company if you are seeking out-of-network reimbursement. Here are the out-of-network billing options they provide:
Frequency of sessions this provider offers to see clients once you are an established client.
I am in-network for Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO. This means I am in-network for all state Blue Cross Blue Shield plans if they are PPO plans.
The practice will call you for a free 10 minute phone call to discuss your needs and ensure a match!
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