Patrick Shanahan
Seasoned family-focused LCSW guiding practical change
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 44 years
- Licensed in
- Missouri
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Patrick
Patrick Shanahan is a licensed clinical social worker with a long history helping people navigate family and parenting challenges. He speaks plainly and focuses on practical steps that families and couples can use right away. He centers conversations on personal values and simple problem solving so parents can make clearer choices.
His style is calm and steady, aimed at guiding rather than lecturing. He began his career creating and running an outpatient clinic tied to a runaway and homeless youth shelter.
Background and approach
For the first 18 years he provided case management, individual therapy, and family sessions both in the shelter and out in the community. He also trained and supervised staff and graduate students and collaborated with a university on research to improve therapy methods. Later work included providing professional Christian counseling part time and nearly two decades in managed care.
In managed care he helped members use mental health benefits and provided phone therapy and crisis intervention. His background spans outpatient offices, community programs, and organizational settings across a range of cultures and values. Patrick draws from several therapy methods including cognitive behavioral work, emotionally-focused techniques, acceptance and commitment ideas, attachment-based thinking, and client-centered approaches.
He also has experience with brief family therapy, structural and strategic systems ideas, and addiction therapies. These tools are used to address issues such as relationship strain, grief, anger, depression, stress, and parenting concerns. With 44 years of experience and the credential LCSW - licensed clinical social worker - Patrick brings broad perspective and practical skills.
He works from Missouri and offers services with attention to each person’s values and goals.
Therapeutic approaches for online family and parenting work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on identifying what matters to a person and taking steps toward those values even when feelings are hard. It can help people cope with stress, depression, and life transitions by clarifying priorities and committing to small actions. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early bonds shape current relationships and helps partners or family members change interaction patterns to feel safer and more connected. It is useful for intimacy issues, communication problems, and rebuilding trust.Choosing the right approach is a shared process. Patrick will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most helpful. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made or needs shift.
Online therapy makes these approaches easier to access. Video calls let families meet from home and keep face-to-face conversation. Phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging offer flexibility for busy schedules or quick check-ins. This variety supports ongoing work on communication, problem solving, and parenting strategies without requiring everyone to travel to an office.
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.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Looks at how early bonds shaped what you expect from closeness, and how that plays out now with a partner, a parent, or your own children.
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.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of concerns does Patrick address?
What is his therapeutic style like?
How much experience does he have?
What credentials and location apply to his practice?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Relationship issues
- Grief
- Anger management
Also works with
- Addictions
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Parenting issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Hypnotherapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 44 years
- Licensed
- Missouri
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Patrick
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point