Illiona Okereke, EdS, LPC
Outpatient Clinician & Doctoral Clinical Leadership Intern
Are you the strong one… the person everyone can count on, but you’re not always sure who you can lean on? Maybe you have difficulty setting boundaries, feel misunderstood by the people you love, or find yourself repeating relationship patterns you know aren’t working. Perhaps you’re navigating family or cultural expectations while trying to make room for your own needs. Or maybe you’re married and love your partner, but find yourselves struggling to understand each other or falling into the same conflicts again and again.
Illy is a trauma therapist who helps women and couples work through the experiences and patterns that can make healthy relationships difficult. With a background in marriage and family therapy, she helps clients understand how past experiences may be shaping their relationships today, heal old wounds, communicate more effectively, and create healthier connections with themselves and the people they love.
With over 15 years of experience working with individuals and families, Illy brings both personal and professional insight into Caribbean and West African family dynamics and the experiences of children of immigrants. She understands the complexities of balancing family and cultural expectations with your relationships, individual needs, and sense of self. She is fluent in Haitian Creole and welcomes clients from all cultural backgrounds.
Illy’s approach is collaborative and tailored to each client. Depending on your needs, she may draw from Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), attachment-based and family systems approaches, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and the Gottman Method. She also uses PREPARE/ENRICH and other approaches to provide premarital and pre-engagement counseling for couples who want to build a strong foundation for marriage.
In addition to her clinical work, Illy is a doctoral student in Counseling and Supervision at Kean University. Her research interests include trauma-informed and culturally responsive counseling, attachment and relationships, and the experiences of children of immigrants.
Education
PhD in Counseling and Supervision, Kean University [in progress]
EdS in Marriage and Family Therapy, The College of New Jersey
MA in Counseling Services, Rider University
BA in Psychology, The College of New Jersey