Nicole Ide

I specialize in helping teens, young adults, and couples who are struggling with communication and perspective taking, to stop repeating unhealthy patterns and to create more fulfilling relationships with effective communication. 

Finding Your Way Through Change

There are times in life when everything seems to be shifting at once. You may be trying to figure out who you are, where you’re headed, or how to manage relationships that suddenly feel more complicated. You might know that you’re anxious, unhappy, or overwhelmed but have a hard time understanding why—or knowing what to do with those feelings.

Whether you’re dealing with anxiety or depression, struggling socially, experiencing conflict with your parents, adjusting to college, questioning aspects of your identity, or simply trying to figure out what comes next, you don’t have to have everything figured out before coming to therapy.

My role is to give you a place where you can be completely yourself without worrying about being judged. Together, we can slow things down, understand what you’re feeling and why, and help you find healthier ways to work with your emotions rather than feeling controlled by them or needing to push them away.

In addition to specializing in teens and young adults, I have developed a specialty in working with couples, as well as individuals looking to improve their communication skills. Relationships can get stuck in patterns where the same conflicts happen again and again, communication breaks down, or partners begin to feel more like adversaries than teammates. I help couples slow those patterns down, better understand one another, and begin rebuilding connection.

I use the Gottman Method to bring structure and practical tools into our work together. We’ll look at the patterns that are getting in the way of your relationship while strengthening communication, friendship, trust, and your ability to navigate conflict as a team. My goal isn’t to decide who is right or wrong—it’s to help both of you feel heard and understood and to create meaningful, lasting change in your relationship.

A Warm, Genuine Approach to Therapy

My approach to therapy is holistic and person-centered, which means I want to understand you as a whole person—not simply focus on a problem or diagnosis. I believe that greater awareness of our emotions can help us better understand ourselves, our relationships, and the choices we make.

Clients and colleagues often describe me as warm, genuine, and positive. I bring that same energy into the therapy room. Therapy can involve difficult conversations, but I also believe there can be room for hope, humor, and the recognition of progress along the way.

Before becoming a therapist, I spent more than 13 years working with college students as an academic advisor in Chicago. That experience gave me a deep appreciation for the challenges young adults face as they navigate independence, education, relationships, identity, and decisions about their future. My previous experience in the business and financial worlds also gives me a unique perspective when working with adults facing career changes or other transitions.

I earned my bachelor’s degree in psychology from Michigan State University and my Master’s degree in Counseling from Oakland University.

I particularly enjoy working with adolescent anxiety and depression, social and relationship concerns, parent/teen conflict, college transitions, identity and life transitions, and LGBTQIA+ clients seeking affirming therapy.