Patrick Shanahan , LCSW

Patrick Shanahan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 44 years of professional experience who draws on a long career working with individuals, couples, youth and families. He approaches therapy from the belief that people are generally self-correcting - an outlook informed by the teachings of Carl Jung and Milton Erickson - and he emphasizes the role of personal values in finding direction and practical solutions. He has studied comparative religions and cultures to better understand and work with people from diverse backgrounds, and he has practiced in a variety of settings serving clients with wide-ranging beliefs and needs.

Patrick began his career by creating and running an outpatient clinic within a runaway and homeless youth shelter, where he spent the first 18 years providing case management as well as individual and family therapy both in the shelter and out in the community. His current strengths include work with individuals and couples, and his clinical toolkit is broad, encompassing brief family therapy, problem-solving approaches, structural and strategic systems theory, hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral methods, communication theory and addiction therapies.

Throughout his career he trained and supervised paid staff and graduate students and partnered with a local university on research to refine therapy models and processes. He completed 29 hours toward a Ph.D. in family therapy and was offered a fellowship with Washington Universitys Ph.D. program. Patrick has provided professional Christian counseling in an outpatient setting and later worked 18 years in managed care assisting members with benefit utilization while offering phone therapy and crisis intervention. He continues to draw on a lifetime of varied clinical experience in outpatient office and community contexts.

Therapeutic Approaches and Accessible Online Care

Patrick combines well-established methods to address relationship, grief, trauma and addiction concerns. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps identify and change unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors, and is useful for anxiety, depression and stress-related challenges. Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early relationships shape current bonds and communication, helping people and couples rebuild trust and improve intimacy. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) encourages meaningful action in line with personal values while learning to accept difficult emotions, supporting coping with life changes and persistent distress.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic work. Patrick collaborates with each person to determine which methods fit their needs, goals and preferences, and he adapts treatment over time as progress unfolds. This collaborative process helps tailor care to the individual or couple.

Online therapy makes these approaches accessible through video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. These options offer flexibility for scheduling, allow work to continue from wherever a person is located, and can make it easier to maintain momentum between sessions while fitting therapy into a busy life.