Patrick Shanahan, LCSW

Patrick Shanahan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in Missouri with 44 years of practice. He works with adults facing relationship strain, grief, anger, low self-esteem, depression, stress, anxiety, addictions, parenting concerns, and family issues. He also lists work around trauma and intimacy-related problems and helps people navigate life changes and caregiver strain.

Shanahan writes that people are often self-correcting but can become stuck. He pays attention to clients' value systems to help find direction. He has studied comparative religions and cultures to better understand different worldviews.

Early in his career he founded and ran an outpatient clinic attached to a runaway and homeless youth shelter. For 18 years he provided case management, individual therapy, and family work both in the shelter and out in the community. He trained and supervised staff and graduate students during that period.

He later completed 29 hours toward a Ph.D. in family therapy and was offered a fellowship with Washington University’s Ph.D. program. He also worked part time in an outpatient Christian counseling group and then spent 18 years with managed care, providing phone therapy and crisis intervention while helping members use mental health benefits.

His stated methods include brief family therapy, problem solving, structural and strategic systems ideas, hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, communication theory, and addiction work. In practice he focuses on practical problem solving and improving relationships and daily functioning.

How Patrick uses therapy methods online