Naperville, IL · Teens & Adults · In-person & Online
Critical Success Counseling is a Naperville-based private practice led by McKenzie Altmayer, LPC. EMDR and Internal Family Systems form the clinical backbone — with sport psychology, narrative work, mindfulness, and creative modalities (including tabletop role-playing) used when they help the work land.
Meet your counselor
Licensed Professional Counselor · She/her · Naperville, IL
McKenzie founded Critical Success Counseling because the best therapy she had ever seen happened when clients could finally do something other than just talk about themselves. EMDR. Parts work. Movement. Story. The right tool, at the right moment, for the right person.
Her primary clinical frameworks are EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS), often woven together. Narrative therapy, mindfulness, and sport psychology round out the toolkit. Creative modalities — including therapeutic tabletop role-playing — show up when they help the work land.
She works with teens and adults navigating anxiety, trauma and PTSD, depression, eating disorders, life transitions, family conflict, and athletic performance. She is fully LGBTQIA+ affirming. She brings warmth, humor, and what she calls compassionate accountability into every room she works in.
“I am trained in EMDR and weave this in with parts work or an IFS foundation. This helps ensure we explore the root of presenting problems, and heal at the source.”
Services
Every client meets first for a free 15-minute consultation. From there, the right format is built around what is actually getting in the way — not what fits a one-size protocol.
50-minute sessions · weekly or as needed
One-on-one mental health counseling for teens and adults. EMDR and Internal Family Systems form the core, with narrative, mindfulness-based, and trauma-focused approaches woven in around what each client actually needs.
45–60 minute sessions · individual focus
The mental side of performance for teen and young-adult athletes. Pressure, perfectionism, identity outside the sport, injury recovery, burnout — the work that the locker room rarely makes room for.
Small cohort · facilitated sessions
For clients who connect with story-driven play, small-group tabletop role-playing — including Dungeons & Dragons — becomes a structured space to practice social skills, regulation, and identity work alongside other people doing the same.
45 or 60 minutes · flexible packages
For clients who are not in clinical distress but want forward motion — confidence, leadership, executive function, navigating transitions. A goal-driven, non-clinical engagement focused on growth and accountability, separate from counseling.
The approach
No one walks into therapy because of a great pamphlet. Here is the practical version — how a course of treatment goes, and what makes this practice different.
A short conversation. We map what is happening, what you want different, and whether this is the right fit. No commitment, no paperwork.
We name the goals together. EMDR, IFS, narrative, sport-psychology work, or creative modalities — chosen with you, not handed down.
50 minutes, weekly or as needed. Some weeks are talk, some weeks work directly with parts, memory, or movement. The modality serves the goal.
Progress is measured against the things you actually want to change. Sessions adjust as you do. When you have what you came for, we plan the off-ramp together.
EMDR and Internal Family Systems are the clinical backbone — two of the most well-validated approaches in modern mental-health care. The aim is durable change you can feel outside the room.
Some clients do their best work in language. Others do it through story, role-play, movement, or imagery. The toolkit is wide so the work can meet you where you are.
McKenzie brings warmth and humor — and a willingness to thoughtfully challenge you when the work calls for it. You stay in the driver’s seat; she helps you see the road.
Who we serve
Critical Success works best for clients ready to look at what is underneath — and for the ones who need a wider creative toolkit than traditional talk therapy offers. If you are not sure, the consultation is the answer.
Anxiety, identity, school stress, family conflict, and the things that are hard to bring home. McKenzie’s teen work is direct, warm, and built around your kid’s actual life.
Launching, navigating college, the first real job, relationships that finally feel adult-shaped. The work that makes the next decade easier.
Post-divorce, grief, career reinvention, mid-life recalibration. EMDR and IFS make space to address what is underneath the surface fix.
Fully affirming care. Allied with bi, gay, lesbian, non-binary, queer, and transgender communities. Identity work, coming-out support, transition support — at any age.
Teen and young-adult athletes navigating performance pressure, perfectionism, injury, identity beyond the sport, and the loneliness of training when nothing else is working.
Big-T and little-t. EMDR-trained, parts-aware, paced for your nervous system. The goal is not just to cope — it is to finish what your brain has been trying to process for years.
Why this approach works
Creative does not mean unproven. The clinical backbone here is EMDR and IFS — two of the most well-validated approaches in modern mental-health care. Everything else, the table included, exists to help that work land.
“I am trained in EMDR and weave this in with parts work or an IFS foundation. This helps ensure we explore the root of presenting problems, and heal at the source.”
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
A structured trauma-processing therapy with decades of clinical research behind it.
Internal Family Systems
A parts-based model treating the mind as a system that can be brought back into coordination.
Narrative, role-play, and play-based work
Used as adjuncts to the core clinical work when they help the right client engage and move.
Citations summarized from published guidance by the WHO, APA, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, SAMHSA, and the peer-reviewed clinical literature.
FAQ
Individual counseling using EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS) as the primary modalities, with narrative, mindfulness-based, and trauma-focused approaches woven in. Sport psychology counseling for teen and young-adult athletes. Therapeutic tabletop role-playing groups (Dungeons & Dragons is one of several creative modalities used). Coaching for non-clinical growth goals.
Get in touch
Send a note, ask a question, or book a free 15-minute consultation. Replies usually go out within one business day.
In a crisis
Critical Success Counseling is not a crisis line. If you are in immediate danger, call or text 988 (U.S. Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest ER.