Amy Shafer
Compassionate, experienced family-focused clinician
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed in
- California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Amy
Amy Shafer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who uses practical, evidence-based approaches to help people manage stress, grief, anxiety, and relationship struggles. She combines clear problem-solving with emotional support so families and individuals can make small, steady changes. Amy draws on 30 years of clinical experience to meet people where they are and help them move forward.
She trained in psychology and human development at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and earned a Master of Social Work from San Diego State University.
Background and approach
Amy has held her California LCSW license since 1994. That long clinical history includes work across many settings and age ranges. In recent years her focus has shifted toward adult and geriatric care, family systems, and relationship challenges.
She works with people facing depression, anxiety, trauma and abuse, grief and loss, and the stresses that come with life transitions. Parenting concerns and blended family dynamics are among the family issues she addresses. Amy mixes approaches such as acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive behavioral tools, emotionally focused techniques, and mindfulness practices.
Sessions typically include clear communication, practical coping strategies, and attention to patterns in family relationships. She aims to be a steady presence while clients try new ways of handling difficult feelings and interactions. Amy emphasizes collaboration, and she helps people set manageable goals and practice skills between sessions.
Online care grounded in clear approaches
Amy uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them. ACT focuses on values and actions, which can be useful for managing grief, anxiety, and life changes.She also draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify unhelpful thinking patterns and test new behaviors. CBT gives concrete tools for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and coping with stress.
Choosing the right approach is part of therapy. Amy will work together with each person to pick or combine methods that match their goals, needs, and comfort level. That collaborative process helps tailor sessions to family dynamics and everyday challenges.
Online sessions include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging for flexibility. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and to maintain continuity when in-person visits are difficult. The variety of formats supports different communication styles and allows ongoing work on skills between meetings.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Amy
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point