About Sherry
Sherry McClanahan is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) based in Virginia. She offers a direct and compassionate style intended to help people identify strengths and make practical changes. Sessions focus on clear steps clients can take toward feeling steadier and more hopeful about their lives.
Sherry uses straightforward conversation to map what matters to each person. She draws on cognitive-behavioral tools to untangle unhelpful thoughts and on mindfulness methods to build calm and present-moment coping.
Background and approach
Solution-focused and narrative ideas help clients spot small gains and rewrite unhelpful stories about themselves. She works with concerns such as stress, anxiety, depression, relationship problems, trauma and abuse, and issues related to gender and sexual identity. Additional areas of focus include attachment and abandonment wounds, body image, codependency, communication struggles, and aspects of kink and alternative sexual culture.
Sherry makes a point of creating an LGBTQ-affirming space. Sherry practices with a collaborative, client-centered approach. She aims to identify a person’s existing strengths and set achievable goals.
Sessions are practical and geared toward building skills that can be used between appointments. Sherry has three years of experience as an LPC and offers work that blends evidence-informed methods with accessible, everyday language. She emphasizes clear next steps, gentle accountability, and a respectful, nonjudgmental stance.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Sherry commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness Therapy in online work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which can reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms by teaching practical coping steps. Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple attention and breathing practices to help people manage stress and stay calmer in triggering moments.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t helped before. That conversation guides which methods are emphasized and how skills are practiced between sessions in a collaborative way.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which lets people pick what fits their life. Video works well for deeper conversational work and skills practice. Phone sessions take less bandwidth and can fit a break at work. Live chat or text messaging can be useful for brief check-ins, ongoing encouragement, or when writing feels easier than speaking. These options aim to make therapy more flexible and easier to fit into daily routines.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Body image
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 3 years
- Licensed
- Virginia
- Languages
- English