About
What is counseling?
Whether you’ve worked with a counselor before or are seeking out counseling for the first time, welcome!
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Counseling is a professional relationship focused on your mental health, wellbeing, and overall quality of life.
Counselors bring their training and experience, but the focus is on you and your goals.
My role isn’t about telling people what to do. Instead, it’s about proving a supportive environment to discuss what’s important to you. We’ll talk about your goals, identify blocks that come up along the way, and work together as you take steps that are meaningful to you.
Embracing the paradox of both/and
Drawing from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), my counseling philosophy is based on the idea of finding balance among opposites.
Examples include:
Work and rest
Structure and flexibility
Confidence and humility
Self-acceptance and personal growth
Our minds can easily fall into all-or-nothing thinking, and we sometimes feel like we must choose between one extreme or the other.
But real life is rarely all-or-nothing! The world is full of paradoxes. We are full of contradictions. You are not any one thing. And that is okay!
LGBTQIA+ friendly
I’m queer an nonbinary myself, and I know that it can sometimes be difficult finding a counselor who is LGBTQIA+ affirming. I have experience working with LGBTQIA+ clients, and I regularly seek out continuing education to to deepen my knowledge and skills in this area.
Neurodiversity affirming
For clients who are Autistic, have ADHD, identify as neurodivergent, or are in the process of exploring if any of this might be a fit for them, it can be helpful to work with a counselor who comes from a neurodiversity-affirming perspecctive.
I’m neurodivergent myself, and I know that living in a world that often isn’t designed with our needs in mind can be tough. But neurodiversity is not a problem to be cured!
In counseling, we can work on improving quality of life and taking steps toward your goals from the perspective of self acceptance.
Health at Every Size
I approach wellness from a body-positive, weight-neutral, Health at Every Size perspective. I do not encourage dieting, and I don’t view weight loss as a therapy goal.
Evidence-based therapy approaches
Because people are sometimes looking for a specific type of therapy, it can be helpful to mention that I have training in the following therapy approaches:
Collaborative, strengths-based counseling
For solving problems and moving toward goals.Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
For healing from past trauma and increasing resiliency.Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
For living a fuller life, even when fear or doubt show up.Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
For creating balance and engaging with life mindfully. (Please note: at this time I am not providing “full model, comprehensive DBT.” )
If that’s helpful to know, great!
(And if your eyes glazed over at the therapist jargon,
that’s perfectly okay too! You don’t need to memorize therapy acronyms in order to get started working with a counselor!)
How I work
Since therapists have different styles, I’d like to share more about how I approach counseling.
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I enjoy working collaboratively with clients. We are on the same team, working together toward your goals.
I start out by asking about what brings someone in and what they are hoping to get out of counseling. In the first few sessions I’ll ask you questions about your life and your goals, and we’ll create a plan for our sessions moving forward.
As we continue working together, your feedback will help us make adjustments as we go.
I believe that therapy does not have to be long term to be helpful. My hope is that clients gain skills that are useful after we stop meeting.
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As a counselor, I teach skills that may be useful, work together to solve problems, and offer support to clients as they take action on their goals. But I don’t make decisions for clients or tell them what to do.
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I hope that the ratio between feeling understood and feeling misunderstood strongly favors understanding. But I know that both can—and do—happen in therapy. Talking about it this tends to help. My goal is to understand you, even if it takes us a few tries to get there.
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I genuinely enjoy working as a counselor, and I think so highly of my clients. It’s an honor to be a part of their lives as they seek to better understand themselves, grow in self-acceptance, and take action toward their goals.
Online video sessions
My practice is 100% telehealth, which allows me to meet with clients located anywhere in North Carolina or South Carolina.
Clients are emailed a unique Zoom for Healthcare link before their appointment. Sessions are set up to be end-to-end encrypted and compatible with HIPAA privacy standards. .
To get the most out of telehealth sessions, I recommend:
A space that is private, quiet, and comfortable.
A working internet connection.
Headphones or earbuds.
A few minutes by yourself to transition between the session and the rest of your day.
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I’m licensed in North Carolina and registered in South Carolina. Current regulations require clients to be physically located in either North Carolina or South Carolina during our telehealth sessions. If you live elsewhere or regularly travel out of state, this would likely be a barrier to us working together.
My credentials
Therapists often have several acronyms after their names, which can be confusing if it’s never explained!
Here are mine: Andrew Shaw, M.Ed, LCMHC, NCC.
Here’s what these letters mean:
M.Ed: I hold a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling.
LCMHC: I’m licensed as a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor.
NCC: In addition to my license, I’m board certified as a National Certified Counselor (NCC).