Amy Shafer , LCSW

Amy Shafer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who draws on 30 years of clinical experience. She focuses on stress, anxiety, grief, depression, relationship and family concerns, and issues that commonly affect women. Amy works with adults navigating life transitions, trauma, addiction, and caregiving strain.

Her approach blends Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Emotionally-Focused Therapy, Client-Centered methods, and mindfulness practices. She uses straightforward tools to help people notice what matters, change unhelpful patterns, and build small daily habits that make life easier.

Amy has a long history of helping people face loss and major life changes. She often supports those coping with chronic illness, aging concerns, blended family stress, and communication or commitment problems. Her work includes addressing abandonment, codependency, and intimacy-related struggles.

Sessions aim to be practical and collaborative. Amy listens for what is most important to each person and then offers exercises, communication strategies, and emotional skills to try between meetings. She emphasizes clarity and steady progress over quick fixes.

Having worked in many settings, Amy is comfortable adapting her methods to different life situations. People who want a calm, experienced guide for grief, caregiving stress, or relationship repair often find her approach useful.

Approaches for online healing and life change

Amy uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in ways that translate well to online care. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people clarify what matters to them and take small actions toward those values, which can reduce avoidance and increase meaning. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors, which is useful for anxiety, low mood, and sleep problems.

Finding the right method is part of the work. Amy will talk with each person about goals and preferences, then suggest approaches to try together. That collaborative process helps shape a plan that feels practical and realistic for daily life.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls are suited to deeper conversations and exercises that use facial cues. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text messaging work well for brief check-ins, tracking progress, or trying short coaching-style exercises between longer sessions.