Therapy - Walnut Creek & Alameda
I provide therapy for individual adults and couples from all backgrounds, with a wide range of concerns. Therapy is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, I do my best to meet you where you are using all of my training and life experience.
I am an experienced, trauma-informed, therapist and I work with many concerns including:
Stress
Trauma
Depression
Creative Blocks
Life Transitions
Grief, Loss & Breakups
Lifestyle & Habit Change
Alcohol & Substance Use/Problem Drinking
Developing Mindfulness Skills
Self Confidence & Self Esteem
Work & Career Challenges
Relationship Issues
Procrastination
Perfectionism
Men’s Issues
My Approach to Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT):
While it is important to get at the root of an issue, it is also important to develop skills you can use now, particularly if you are feeling a great deal of discomfort or distress. I help people develop skills to better acknowledge, accept, and work with thoughts, feelings, and body sensations in the moment. I help people learn to relate more effectively to what is going on inside and outside of them so they may become more psychologically flexible and able to meet the inevitable ups and downs of life with more ease. These tools and techniques can be learned and practiced at the beginning of therapy so you can immediately start to work with and shift what previously might have seemed unmanageable.
The past’s influence on the present:
It is helpful to understand the influence of the past on the present. Together we look at your history and the underlying causes of symptoms, patterns, anxieties, and internal conflicts. It is my hope that working together will help you uncover and make sense of confusing or conflicting thoughts, feelings and desires and gain understanding and insight. With awareness and the practice of new skills comes the ability to make conscious and healthy choices and stop letting old patterns, reactions, and behaviors that no longer serve you guide the course of your life.
My Background and Training
In addition to private practice, I have worked in a variety of settings, including:
providing therapy for facebook employees at the life@wellness center at the menlo park facebook campus
providing grief and bereavement counseling to children in a community mental health agency
providing psychotherapy to college students struggling with issues such as academic performance, identity, relationships, and self-esteem
providing trauma treatment to children in a school setting
Current & past trainings:
Ongoing, biweekly clinical consultation with peer-reviewed ACT trainer
Learning Relational Frame Theory (RFT) - Perspectives Ireland, Yvonne Barnes-Holmes
Introduction to Process-based Behavior Therapy (PBBT) - Perspectives Ireland, Yvonne Barnes-Holmes
ACT Immersion: An Introduction to ACT as a Process-Based Therapy - Steven Hayes
ACT in Action - Steven Hayes, Psychotherapy.net
CBT For Depression - Judith Beck, The Beck Institute
Essentials of CBT: The Beck Approach - Judith Beck, The Beck Institute
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) Level 1 training
My decades long meditation and yoga practices have helped shape my view of things and inform my work with clients. It is my passion to assist clients in their journey toward a more rich understanding of themselves, others, and the world and to help clients live meaningful, balanced, and intentional lives based on their personal values.
Shannon's Licensing & Affiliations
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist - California Board of Behavioral Sciences LMFT93950
Clinical Member - California Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (CAMFT)
Professional Member - Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS)
Professional Member - Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Former Board Member - Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (NCSPP)
Former Education Committee Chair - Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (NCSPP)
