Shirley Semel
Practical, compassionate family and parenting support
- Credentials
- LMFT
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed in
- California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Shirley
Shirley Semel is a licensed marriage and family therapist who uses a warm, practical approach to help families and parents. She speaks plainly and listens closely so people can talk about what matters most in short, focused sessions. Shirley draws on eight years of clinical work to guide conversations about stress, parenting, relationships, and life changes.
She has experience running groups related to domestic violence, anger management, and addiction relapse prevention.
Background and approach
That experience informs how she supports people facing addiction, co-occurring concerns, or family trouble. Shirley also offers help around mood concerns such as depression and bipolar changes, along with anxiety and sleep or eating difficulties. In sessions she blends client-centered listening with tools from cognitive behavioral therapy and solution-focused work.
She also uses psychodynamic ideas to notice patterns that repeat across relationships and generations. The result is a mix of compassionate listening and practical steps you can try between meetings. For parents and blended families she focuses on communication, boundaries, and coping strategies that reduce daily stress.
She also works with caregiver stress, chronic illness challenges, and family-of-origin issues when those strains affect family life. Shirley keeps language simple and action-oriented so busy families can fit therapy into real life. Shirley holds a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist credential, CA LMFT 93363.
Sessions are offered in English and delivered online by video, phone, chat, or text to people located in California.
Therapeutic approaches and online options for families
Shirley uses client-centered therapy to prioritize a person or family's perspective and goals, providing a space where parents and caregivers can speak openly and be heard. This approach helps people clarify what matters to them and build trust in the work.She also draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on practical strategies to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. CBT can be useful for anxiety, sleep or eating problems, mood shifts, and managing stress in daily family life.
Finding the right approach is part of the therapy process. Shirley collaborates with each person to choose which methods make the most sense based on their needs, goals, and preferences. She adjusts techniques over time so they fit what is actually working for the family.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy households. Video calls provide face-to-face connection, phone sessions remove travel time, and live chat or text messaging make it easier to check in between appointments. These options make it simpler to fit sessions into school, work, and caregiving routines while keeping the focus on practical steps families can use right away.
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.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Exploring how earlier relationships and patterns still shape the present, often over a longer stretch of time. It relies on conversation and reflection rather than exercises.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Addictions
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Shirley
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point