Therapeutic Style
My approach is rooted in behavioral therapy, drawing on principles of learning theory to understand how behaviors are acquired and modified through interactions within one’s environment. By helping clients recognize patterns in their thoughts, emotions, and actions, we develop strategies to modify unhelpful behaviors and reinforce positive change.
A central tenet of my approach is Stoic theory, which incorporates rationality, personal responsibility, self-control, moderation, resilience, mindfulness, acceptance, emotional regulation, secularism, and practical applications in personal development. I offer psycho-education throughout sessions, as requested by clients, to explain the different models, techniques, and concepts.
I utilize a goal-directed and strategic approach to helping clients create desired changes in their lives. I do not offer “talk therapy”. I don’t work with people who just want to vent about their problems. I work with those who are ready and willing to make changes in their lives – to act differently in order to get different results. My clients tell me they chose to work with me either because they saw few results with their previous therapist, or they felt they had reached their growth limit and needed something more. I draw from an eclectic toolbox of therapeutic techniques and psychological models to offer a unique experience to each individual. I do not tell people what to do or share what has worked for others; I work with you to find what works best for you.
- Collaborative and self-determined: I work with you to identify your challenges and goals, and offer various options on how to achieve them.
- Goal-directed: After identifying and clearly defining your goals, making them measurable and realistic, we use them to guide each session. The aim is to make progress toward your desired outcomes. Feedback is gathered along the way and modifications are made, as appropriate.
- Active and directive: I am proactive in guiding the therapeutic process, asking questions, offering insights, and providing feedback to help clients achieve their goals.
- Strategic: Behavior has a structure to it. What someone is doing has an underlying process of how they are doing it. The strategy is to identify and alter patterns of behavior or interaction that maintain problems, often with a focus on achieving clear, short-term goals that compound to greater successes.
Therapeutic Modalities
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies (CBT)
CBT is a structured, short-term, present-oriented, rational, technique-based, behavioral-outcome-focused form of psychotherapy used to solve current problems and focuses on changing one’s habitual patterns of thinking and behaving. Treatment is based upon the understanding of the individual client’s specific beliefs and patterns of behavior. Behavioral techniques are based on the stimulus-response model emphasizing how past experiences and environmental factors shape behavior. CBT was partially founded out of Stoicism.
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
- I-CBT: Inference-based CBT
- CBTp: CBT for Psychosis
- Reality Therapy
- REBT: Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
- Certified Mental Health Technician in Rational Living Therapy
- National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists (NACBT)
Experiential Psychotherapies
Experiential psychotherapies emphasize guiding the client through direct, in-the-moment experiences to actively explore emotions, body sensations, and past experiences in real-time to create meaningful experiences that can lead to change by tapping into a deeper, often non-verbal level of awareness. The focus is on helping clients experience and process emotions and memories to facilitate self-awareness, change, and growth rather than intellectualize them.
- Focusing-oriented Psychotherapy
- Gestalt Therapy
- Integral Eye-Movement Therapy (IEMT)
- Association for IEMT Practitioners
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy
- Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Mindfulness-based Models
Mindfulness is being aware of present moment experience. It is recognizing and acknowledging the reality of a situation – what actually is. Shawn outlines mindfulness into four steps: 1) Awareness of the present moment, 2) Acknowledge that this is reality, 3) Accept what actually is, and 4) Mindful deliberation.
- Body Meditation
- 6-month study and practice with a private meditation teacher
- Mindfulness-based Interventions
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a process of inducing a trance-like state where the mind becomes absorbed and focused. The intent of the trance state (absorption and focus) is up to the individual. A “hypnotic state” occurs when the conscious mind becomes less active, and the ‘other-than-conscious mind’ (aka the unconscious mind) becomes more receptive to suggestions, allowing for changes in perception, beliefs, and behavior.
- Certified Hypnotist
- Client-centered, integrative hypnosis; regression; and hypnotic coaching.
- Certified through the National Guild of Hypnotists.
- Trained in-person through Virginia Hypnosis, San Diego Hypnosis Institute, The Center For Integrative Hypnosis, and The Intelligent Hypnotist.
Coaching
Coaching is the practice of helping everyday people with everyday (normal, non-clinical) problems using specific change work methods and models. The coaching world helps people improve their existing performance and skills, focusing on specific tasks and objectives while working through limitations or blockages within themselves.
- Core Transformations Training (Connirae Andreas NLP)
- Emotional Freedom Techniques, Positive EFT Facilitator
- CBT-based Coaching, Certified Master Life Coach
- Behavioral Healthcare Consulting Training Institute
Education
I studied philosophy and psychology at Carroll Community College and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and I majored in social work at UMBC. In graduate school, I studied social work with a concentration in clinical behavioral health and a sub-specialty in employee assistance programs (EAPs). While in graduate school, I was concurrently enrolled at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) to take additional coursework in human services counseling specializing in alcohol and drug counseling, earning my certificate in behavioral health counseling from CCBC.
I was awarded the BHWISE-IOWA fellowship, a federally funded training program that provides specialized training seminars, focused coursework, and field placements working with adults experiencing addiction. The BHWISE-IOWA (Behavioral Health Workforce Integration Service and Education – Interprofessional Opioid Workforce Advancement) fellowship trained graduate students to collaborate with professionals on integrated behavioral health teams.
Master of Social Work (MSW)
Clinical Behavioral Health and Employee Assistance Program
University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), Baltimore, MD
Bachelor of Arts in Social Work (BSW)
Minor in Philosophy
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD
Behavioral Health Counseling Certificate
Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), Baltimore, MD
Associate of Arts in Arts and Science
Carroll Community College (CCC), Westminster, MD