Patrick Shanahan, LCSW

Patrick Shanahan is a Missouri LCSW with 44 years of clinical experience. He focuses on relationship problems, grief, anger, self-esteem, depression, stress, anxiety, addictions, family and trauma concerns. He also works with intimacy-related issues, parenting and career stress. Clients can expect practical, straightforward work aimed at getting past what keeps them stuck.

Shanahan describes people as generally self-correcting and uses that idea in sessions. He pays attention to a person’s values to help find direction and workable solutions. He has studied comparative religions and cultures, which he says helps him relate to different backgrounds and belief systems.

He began his career running an outpatient clinic for a runaway and homeless youth shelter, where he provided case management, individual therapy, and family therapy in both the shelter and the community. For many years he trained and supervised paid staff and graduate students and worked with a university on research to improve therapeutic models.

His methods draw from several approaches: brief family therapy, problem-solving work, structural and strategic systems ideas, hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, communication theory, and addiction therapies. He spent time working in professional Christian therapy and later in managed care providing phone-based therapy and crisis intervention.

Clients meeting him can expect sessions that emphasize problem solving, clear communication, and attention to personal values. He combines long experience with a pragmatic style aimed at helping people move forward from stuck patterns.

Therapeutic approaches and how online sessions work