Patrick Shanahan, LCSW

Patrick Shanahan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 44 years of experience helping individuals, couples, and families navigate complex life challenges. He approaches therapy from the belief that people are generally self-correcting - a perspective informed by the work of Carl Jung and Milton Erickson - and focuses on helping clients move past the obstacles that keep them stuck. Patrick places strong emphasis on personal values as a guide to direction and solution finding, and his study of comparative religions and cultures supports his ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds.

He began his career creating and running an outpatient clinic within a runaway and homeless youth shelter, a role he held for the first 18 years of practice. In that setting he provided case management, individual therapy, and family therapy both in the shelter and in community settings, and he trained and supervised paid staff and graduate students. Collaborating with a local university, he participated in research to refine therapeutic models, and he completed 29 hours toward a Ph.D. in family therapy along with an offer of fellowship from Washington University’s Ph.D. program.

Patrick later provided professional Christian therapy on a part-time basis with New Life Christian Counseling, and he spent 18 years working in managed care helping members use mental health benefits while offering phone-based therapy and crisis intervention. His clinical toolkit includes brief family therapy, problem-solving strategies, structural and strategic systems theory, hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, communication theory, and addiction therapies. He currently focuses primarily on work with individuals and couples and addresses areas such as relationships, grief, addiction, trauma and abuse, parenting, career transitions, stress and anxiety, and compassion fatigue in his Missouri-based practice.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care with Patrick Shanahan

Patrick Shanahan draws on evidence-informed approaches to help clients clarify values, manage difficult emotions, and improve relationships. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on accepting internal experiences while committing to actions that align with what matters most - it can help with stress, anxiety, depression, and motivation. Attachment-Based Therapy explores patterns formed in early relationships to improve connection and security in current relationships, making it useful for couples work and family concerns. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) identifies and adjusts unhelpful thoughts and behaviors to reduce symptoms and build practical coping skills, often supporting work on anxiety, depression, and addiction.

Finding the best therapeutic approach is part of the collaborative process. Patrick works with each client to assess needs, goals, and personal preferences and then tailors techniques from these approaches to create a flexible plan that fits the client’s situation.

Online therapy with Patrick is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, providing practical flexibility for scheduling, location, and communication style. These options make it easier for clients balancing work, family, caregiving, or geographic constraints to access care and continue consistent progress with a licensed professional.