Practitioner record · Checked 6 Nov 2026
Dr. Steven Hurley has been in practice 19 years and is licensed in Illinois. Dr. lists stress, Anxiety, LGBT and relationship issues among 58 subjects on the BetterHelp roster.
Everything below is either quoted from Dr.'s own BetterHelp listing, taken from public licensing records, or written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such. Nothing here is an availability promise, a review, or a rating.
01 · Who Dr. works with
Dr. lists 13 specialisms and 45 further focus areas. Specialisms are the subjects Dr. chose to list first, which is the closest a listing gets to “this is my actual practice”.
02 · In Dr.'s own words
Reproduced in full and unedited - not summarised, not tightened, not rewritten in a house voice.
Steven Hurley, Psy. D.
Specialties: Anxiety, Depression, & other Mood Disorders; PTSD; Anger & Stress Management; Coping Mechanisms; Drug & Alcohol Abuse; Non-Substance Addictions; Dual Diagnosis; Behavioral Management; Couples/Marriage Therapy - including Pre-Marital Screening and Divorce Mediation; Geriatric Disorders; Sexual Issues including: Dysfunction, Abuse, & Offender; LGBTQ concerns; Self-Esteem; Prisoner issues; Life Coaching; and Career Counseling
Mindset: Inspiration for the process of therapy can be drawn from one of the best movie quotes of all time, "No! Try not! Do or Do Not, There is no try." These are very powerful words telling people, especially to those in therapy that you must either willingly make your own necessary and sometimes critical changes in your life or you don't. Therapy is about actively regaining control of your personal energy. Therapy is a collaborative approach to healing and well-being between a client and therapist. The therapist helps guide a person into making better life decisions, but the client must intuitively think of new ways of managing their life stressors that they are comfortable starting and maintaining. Clients not willing to make changes for themselves will continue to spin helplessly and hopelessly out of control. The mind is constantly changing; people in therapy must also learn to continually adjust and adapt to new situations while keeping a mindful-eye on their past.
Education and Training: Dr. Hurley received his Master of Arts (MA) in General and Theoretical Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in Teaneck, New Jersey. He graduated with a Doctoral Degree (Psy.D.) in Clinical Psychology at Forest Institute of Professional Psychology (FIPP) in Springfield, Missouri. At FIPP, Dr. Hurley specialized in Marriage and Family Counseling. Other areas of training included neuro-psychology, anger management, bio-feedback, and pre-marital counseling. During his doctoral program he worked in a children's psychiatric hospital. His internship was in community mental health, and he participated in a national study on Schizophrenia. Dr. Hurley's post-doc residency was in substance abuse and rehabilitation.
After his post-doc residency he spent two years in private practice in Libertyville, IL. Dr. Hurley then became the medical director for a Chicago based firm doing home health care delivering mental health therapy to Chicago's south-side geriatric African-American population who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Dr. Hurley has taught undergraduate students at Robert Morris College in Aurora, IL and graduate students at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. He finds teaching to be a change of pace and a way of leading a new generation of therapists into the Health Services Industry.
His career path changed when he moved to Knoxville, TN. Dr. Hurley was the Clinical Director for Mental Health for Tennessee's main intake prison facility. He worked with various criminals making sure that they received the help they needed and to minimize suicide attempts. Dr. Hurley's stance on his education, training, and career is to always strive to learn more, to do more, and to be the best therapist possible.
Dr. Hurley has since moved and changed careers. He has worked in private practice dealing with individuals and couples while supervising trainees. He has also gone back into working with the criminal population in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Dr. Hurley is always looking for ways to help people become the very best version of themselves. More recently he has been helping Veterans apply for VA benefits for their disabling conditions. I'm now in my 20th year of practicing psychology and feel that I've had the pleasure to help some many people over the past two decades.
Therapeutic Stance: My approach to therapy with my clients is multi-faceted. There is no one therapy to fit all. I like to approach issues from a psycho-dynamic, family systems, CBT, Gestalt, existential, and medical stance. When dealing with mental health disorders you have to consider the mind as well as the body for the root of a problem. Therapy needs to be understandable by those who seek help and I have spent years refining my technique to help clients understand the issues they're facing and the theories on how to resolve said issues. People feel more comfortable and understood if you can talk to them in the various places they are currently. I love to see individuals, couples, and groups in a calm, peaceful, and most importantly neutral environment.
Personal: Other psychological interests include neuro-psychology and brain imaging, music and movie therapy, sexual dysfunction and addictions, and psychopharmacology. I love to use humor, music, movies and TV in sessions because they are examples of life experiences people can relate too. I have a wonderful wife and family who make me happy, and who help me strive to be the best person I can be.
Dr. Steven Hurley, on the BetterHelp listing · read 6 Nov 2026
03 · How Dr. works
These are the clinical methods Dr. lists. The descriptions are Maker Therapy's, not Dr.'s - a general explanation of what each method is, so the list means something before you have spoken to anybody. They are not a claim about how Dr. runs a session.
Also listed
04 · What happens next
Dr. practises through BetterHelp, so the route in is BetterHelp's. This is that sequence, written by Maker Therapy from the platform's published process - not a description of Dr.'s own practice, and not a promise about how quickly anything happens.
BetterHelp opens with a set of questions about what you are dealing with, what you want from therapy, and any preferences on the therapist. You are not booking Dr. at this point.
BetterHelp matches algorithmically by default, so asking for Dr. is a step you have to take. There is a field for requesting a specific therapist during sign-up, and you can switch afterwards from your account. Starting from a link on this page does not by itself assign you to Dr..
You will be offered somebody else rather than put on a waitlist. Worth knowing, because it is easy to assume a match is the person you asked for.
A first session is typically history and orientation: what brought you, what has been tried, what you want to be different. It is also where the questions in the next section belong.
Changing therapist on BetterHelp does not need a reason. A first session that does not click is common and is not a verdict on therapy. That option existing is the main practical difference between a platform and a private practice.
05 · Before you commit
Built from what Dr. actually lists, so they are answerable and specific rather than generic. Maker Therapy's, not Dr.'s - Dr. has not seen them and is under no obligation to answer any of them.
“You list both Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Psychodynamic Therapy. Which do you lean on with someone like me?”
Those two point in different directions - one structured and led by the therapist, the other led by you. The answer tells you what the sessions will actually feel like.
“How do you decide when someone is ready to work on a traumatic memory itself?”
Pacing is the biggest safety question in trauma work. A clear, unhurried answer here matters more than any credential.
“With 19 years in, what has changed most in how you work?”
Long experience is only an advantage if it has been examined. This tends to surface whether it has.
“How do you handle the gap between sessions if something comes up?”
On BetterHelp this varies a great deal by therapist. Better to know the rhythm now than to discover it on a bad week.
06 · Practical details
07 · Provenance
Dr.'s name, credential, state, subjects, approaches and biography are read from BetterHelp's therapist roster, which Maker Therapy re-reads once a day; this page reflects the reading taken on 6 Nov 2026. The licence number and NPI are cross-checked against public registers.
The plain-English method descriptions, the first-session walkthrough and the questions are written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such wherever they appear.
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