Denise Rickenbach, MA, LMFT, LADC
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist • Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselor
Helping you find movement when your thoughts, relationships, or life feel stuck.
For nearly a decade, Denise has helped adults, couples, and families navigate obsessive thought patterns, relationship conflict, addiction and recovery, and major life transitions. Her work is steady, practical, and direct-helping clients understand what’s keeping them stuck and build a clearer path forward.
When everything feels tangled, we start by slowing it down.
Sometimes you know something isn’t working, but you can’t quite figure out how to change it.
You may be caught in obsessive thoughts that seem impossible to turn off. You might keep having the same conflict with someone you love. Or life may have shifted in a way that has left you wondering what comes next.
Denise’s work begins by making sense of what’s happening.
Together, you’ll identify the patterns, beliefs, habits, and responses that may be keeping you stuck-and clarify what you actually want to be different.
Her style is compassionate but direct. Therapy isn’t about endlessly analyzing the problem. It’s about developing the insight and practical tools that help you create meaningful, lasting change.
Areas of Focus
Relationship Therapy
Relationship conflict, communication difficulties, codependency, boundaries, recurring relational patterns.
Addiction & Recovery
Substance use concerns, recovery support, the impact of addiction on relationships and families.
Life Transitions & Loss
Grief, depression, unresolved loss, identity shifts, uncertainty, and major life changes.
OCD & Anxiety
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, rumination, emotional overwhelm.
Direct. Practical. Compassionate.
Denise begins therapy by helping you identify what isn’t working-and what you want your life or relationships to look like instead.
Her approach draws from evidence-based models including Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for OCD, Relational Life Therapy (RLT) for relationship patterns, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) for challenging distorted thinking and deeply held beliefs.
Sessions are collaborative and focused.
You might explore questions like:
“What is this thought asking you to do?”
“What keeps happening when conflict shows up?”
“What would change if you responded differently?”
The goal isn’t simply to understand why you’re stuck.
It’s to help you find a way forward.
The person behind the therapist
Denise’s interest in relationships and addiction began long before she became a therapist. Her own experiences watching complicated relationship dynamics unfold gave her an early curiosity about why people get stuck-and what actually helps them change.
Outside the therapy room, Denise values connection, creativity, and lifelong learning. She’s an avid podcast listener, loves knitting handmade gifts for the people she loves, and enjoys traveling with her husband.
She’s also a mom to five adult children and grandmother of nine. Family continues to remind her that relationships are complicated, meaningful, imperfect, and always capable of growth.
Experience That Goes Beyond the Therapy Room
Denise brings experience across residential and outpatient substance use treatment, private practice, and outpatient mental health settings.
That breadth of experience shapes the way she approaches therapy today: with an understanding that mental health, relationships, addiction, loss, and major life changes rarely exist in isolation. She helps clients look at the whole picture rather than treating one piece of their experience in a vacuum.
Training & Credentials
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)
Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselor (LADC)
Certified Discernment Counselor
Trained in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Relational Life Therapy (RLT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
Education
Master of Arts in Marriage & Family Therapy
Adler Graduate School
Bachelor of Science in Psychology
University of Northwestern
Ready to Begin?
Whether you're navigating a difficult season, working to strengthen your relationships, or simply looking for a place to think more clearly, we're here to help.