MEET OUR THERAPIST
Tushi Patel, LSW
Therapy for Anxiety, Identity & Life Transitions in Illinois & Michigan
Relational, culturally responsive therapy for teens, adults, and couples navigating anxiety, identity, relationships, family and cultural expectations, and life transitions.
Teens 16+ · Adults · Couples
Illinois & Michigan · Virtual
Aetna IL · BCBS IL · Private Pay
Accepting New Clients
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Family and cultural experiences can shape how we understand safety, responsibility, relationships, and ourselves long after the original experience has passed. Therapy can help you understand what you've carried forward, what still feels important to you, and what you want to relate to differently.
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Questions about who you are don't always come with neat answers. We can explore identity, belonging, changing roles, career shifts, relationships, and major transitions while making room for both where you've come from and who you're becoming.
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Relationships can bring out patterns we don't always notice on our own. Our work can look at communication, dating, boundaries, conflict, people-pleasing, and recurring relationship dynamics so you can better understand what happens between you and the people who matter to you.
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Anxiety, depression, and burnout can affect everything from your relationships to your ability to make decisions or feel present in your own life. Therapy gives us room to understand what's underneath the overwhelm while finding ways to make everyday life feel more manageable.
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Grief isn't limited to death. It can come with the end of a relationship, a changing family, a move, a career transition, or realizing that life looks different than you expected. Therapy can give you somewhere to make sense of what changed without rushing you toward being “over it.”
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Family can hold love, loyalty, responsibility, frustration, and guilt all at once. We can work through cultural and family expectations, boundaries, people-pleasing, and the tension between staying connected to the people you love and making choices that feel like your own.
Relational Therapy for Anxiety, Identity & Relationships
Therapy isn't about fitting you into a formula.
I believe meaningful therapy starts with the relationship we build together. My style is warm, relational, and collaborative. We'll get curious about the patterns, relationships, experiences, and expectations that have shaped you while staying grounded in what's happening in your life now.
I won't push you to relive experiences you aren't ready to revisit, and I also won't just sit back and nod. I'll ask questions, notice patterns, make connections, and help you understand yourself more deeply so you can decide what you want to do next.
My approach draws from IFS, narrative therapy, attachment theory, RCT, ACT, and mindfulness depending on what you need.
Culturally Responsive Therapy for South Asian & First-Generation Clients
Culture and context matter. Therapy doesn't happen in a vacuum.
As a first-generation South Asian American and eldest daughter of immigrants, I understand how complicated it can be to hold family, culture, responsibility, identity, and your own wants at the same time.
You can love your family and still feel hurt by them. You can want more independence without wanting less connection. You can understand where someone's behavior comes from and still acknowledge how it affects you.
Therapy doesn't have to make you choose between those truths. Our work can make room for the whole picture- your relationships, culture, identities, values, and the life you're trying to build.
I especially enjoy working with South Asian, BIPOC, immigrant, LGBTQ+, and first- and second-generation clients.
Online Therapy for Teens, Adults & Couples in Illinois and Michigan
I work with people navigating something specific and people who simply know they want to understand themselves, their relationships, or what comes next a little better.
Relationships
Dating & communication
Boundaries
Recurring patterns
Mental Health
Anxiety & depression
ADHD
Burnout
Identity & Culture
Belonging
Family expectations
Cultural dynamics
Life Transitions
Grief & loss
Career uncertainty
Major life changes
Therapy for Culture, Identity & Relationships: Common Questions
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Therapy can give you room to separate what you genuinely value from what you've learned you're supposed to want or do. The goal isn't automatically to reject family or cultural expectations, but to understand how they affect you and make choices that feel more intentional.
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Boundaries don't have to mean distance or ending a relationship. Therapy can help you figure out what you need, communicate it more clearly, and work through the guilt or anxiety that can come with changing long-standing family patterns.
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Yes. It's possible to care deeply about your family and culture while also wanting something different for yourself. Therapy can make room for both rather than treating independence and connection as an either/or decision.
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Growing up between cultures can affect identity, relationships, family roles, career decisions, and your sense of belonging. Therapy can be a place to explore those experiences without assuming there is one correct way to relate to your culture or identity.
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Look for a therapist who explicitly discusses culture, identity, family dynamics, and lived experience as part of their clinical work rather than treating them as separate issues. Tushi provides virtual, culturally responsive therapy for teens 16+, adults, and couples located in Illinois and Michigan.
RELATIONAL THERAPY, ROOTED IN YOU
Ready to Begin?
You don't need to have everything figured out before starting therapy. We can start with what's happening now and figure out the rest together.
