Shakina Small, LPC - Therapist in Pennsylvania

About Shakina

Shakina Small is a licensed professional counselor (LPC) with 26 years of experience. She offers compassionate, straightforward support for relationship and family concerns. She speaks plain language and aims to make therapy feel clear and doable for busy parents.

She draws on several practical methods in sessions, including client-centered work that focuses on the person’s experience and cognitive behavioral techniques that look at thoughts and behaviors. She also uses emotion-focused approaches to help couples and family members reconnect around core feelings.

Background and approach

Sessions often include teaching skills, role practice, and direct feedback when needed. Her background includes work in a wide range of settings such as schools, residential programs, foster care, inpatient and outpatient treatment, and community ministries. That experience informs her ability to talk about parenting, blended family issues, adoption and foster care, fatherhood concerns, and communication problems in a straightforward way.

Shakina commonly addresses trauma, abuse, addiction, anger, intimacy issues, self-esteem, and life transitions. She also supports people facing bipolar symptoms, ADHD, career stress, and challenges around commitment or codependency. She approaches these topics with respect and sensitivity.

Therapy begins with listening and identifying practical next steps. Parents and partners can expect a mix of empathy, education, and direct guidance aimed at changing patterns that cause repeated hurt. The goal is steady, useful progress rather than quick fixes.

Therapeutic approaches adapted for online family care

Shakina uses client-centered therapy to create space for people to describe their experience in their own words. This approach focuses on understanding the person and building a trusting working relationship, which helps when talking through family and relationship struggles.

She also draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, which looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect. CBT often includes practical tools and homework to change unhelpful patterns, useful for parenting challenges, anger, and coping with life changes.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will help figure out which methods fit a family's needs and goals, and will adjust strategies over time in collaboration with the client.

Online formats available include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. These options provide flexibility for parents and partners with busy schedules, allow more frequent check-ins when helpful, and make it easier to keep therapy consistent across life changes.

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.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Concrete skills for riding out strong emotion, tolerating distress, and handling relationships without things escalating. The skills are practised in daily life, so between-session support by message or phone fits naturally.

Frequently asked questions

What kinds of problems does she address?

She works with relationship and family issues, trauma and abuse, addictions, parenting concerns, intimacy-related issues, anger, and self-esteem. Additional focuses include adoption and foster care, blended family issues, and fatherhood matters.

What is her therapy style like?

Her approach is empathetic and straightforward. Sessions blend listening, teaching, skill practice, and direct feedback to help people change repeating patterns.

How long has she been practicing?

She has 26 years of experience working in settings such as schools, residential treatment, foster care, inpatient and outpatient programs, and community ministries.

What are her credentials and where is she licensed?

She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, LPC, with Pennsylvania license number PA LPC PC016304 and practices in Pennsylvania.

Which languages are supported for sessions?

Sessions are offered in English.

Are sessions offered online or in different formats?

Sessions can take place via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to suit different schedules and needs.

How are fees and payment handled?

Cost varies with location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.

What steps are required to begin therapy?

To begin, select the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule according to therapist availability.

Specialties and expertise

Top specialties

Relationship issues
Family conflicts
Trauma and abuse

Also works with

Therapeutic approaches

Experience: 26 years
Licensed: Pennsylvania
Languages: English

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