About Shakina
Shakina Small uses a direct, person-focused approach to help people work through relationship and family struggles. She is a licensed professional counselor - LPC - based in Pennsylvania with 26 years of experience. Her style blends empathy with clear guidance so people can make changes that stick.
She helps with trauma and abuse, addiction, intimacy issues, and concerns about self-esteem and mood. Parents who feel overwhelmed and people facing career shifts often seek her support.
Background and approach
She also works with ADHD, bipolar concerns, and the emotional fallout from separation or divorce. Her sessions draw on client-centered work and structured techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy when helpful. She uses emotionally focused and existential ideas to address how people connect and find meaning.
These tools are adapted to each person's situation rather than applied the same way to everyone. Shakina's background includes many settings such as schools, residential programs, and community services. That variety informs a practical approach to problems that can feel stuck or recurring.
She combines talking with expressive activities when that helps someone access difficult feelings. People can expect clear feedback, teaching of coping skills, and help identifying patterns that keep them from moving forward. The aim is to reduce harm from past hurts and build more stable ways of relating and managing emotions.
Shakina works collaboratively to set goals and track progress over time.
Approaches that fit online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and reflecting so people feel understood and can find their own solutions; it helps with relationship struggles and self-esteem issues. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) teaches clear tools to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and is useful for anxiety, mood concerns, and managing symptoms. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) adds skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and better communication when feelings run high.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will review concerns, try approaches that match goals, and adjust methods based on what helps. This collaborative process means what starts in early sessions can shift as needs become clearer.
Online therapy offers several practical benefits. Video calls let the therapist observe interaction and use screen-based exercises, while phone sessions are helpful when bandwidth is limited or a quieter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging support brief check-ins, skill practice, and ongoing homework between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to use tools in everyday moments.
Questions people ask
What concerns does she address?
What is her therapeutic style like?
What experience does she bring to sessions?
What are her credentials and where is she located?
Which languages are supported and can international clients join?
What session formats are available?
How does payment and cost work?
How do I begin working with her?
What this counselor works with
Most often
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 26 years
- Licensed
- Pennsylvania
- Languages
- English