Licensed to practice in 3 states and accepts 42 insurances. Specializes in Anxiety, Depression, Life Transitions and 10 more.
Shannon Skahan
(she/her)
Hi there! My name is Shannon Skahan and I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) offering virtual telehealth therapy to clients located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. I have dedicated my career to offering short-term and long-term therapy within a number of settings related to higher education mental health (student counseling centers), inpatient and outpatient healthcare settings, private practice, and a county jail. It is an honor to bear witness to the experiences clients share during our time together, and I am committed to employing a multicultural trauma-informed, strengths-based approach. Additionally, I value diversity, equity, and inclusion and center cultural humility in each connection made along the way. My clinical approach also focuses on exploring themes related to identity development/integration, intersectionality, and social justice.
Get to know me
In our first session together, here's what you can expect
In our first session we'll meet for about an hour. This appointment will help us to get to know each other and explore mutual goodness of fit for ongoing support. We'll start by going over general housekeeping related to confidentiality, administrative policies, and mutual availability. Later on we'll begin to discuss what brings you to counseling during this season of your life, what you hope to get out of working together, and any other questions that arise along the way. I can also offer a personally tailored clinical recommendation for what type of support could be helpful for you and we will discuss how to best collaborate. Of note, I will also let folks know if a referral to another provider would be most appropriate given our conversations.
The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions
I consider myself a compassionate, kind, and thoughtful provider. I also approach each session as if clients are in the driver's seat while gently providing navigational cues and support in the passenger seat! I feel strongly that you are the expert of their own lived experience, and check in regularly about whether you feel we're on track with agreed upon goals, or if we would benefit from pivoting our approach. To me, one of the most meaningful parts of building relationships within the therapy space is getting to explore our mutual humanness together. I hope to provide a listening ear and helping hand and genuinely enjoy getting to know each person I meet throughout counseling.
The clients I'm best positioned to serve
Helping clients identify, honor, and protect chosen values helps to create a compass that guides us down each path explored together in treatment. I love supporting adult and young adult clients around identity exploration, life transitions, family dynamics, dating/relationships, education/career considerations, trauma processing, and specific goals each person has. Of note, I have extensive experience with supporting young adults in school at the undergraduate or graduate level, in addition to clients currently working in healthcare settings (or planning to do so in the future). My goal is to help clients feel heard, understood, supported, and equipped to increase self-care in practical, realistic ways. I also believe understanding yourself better lends itself to helping you understand who you are today, and the person you hope to become in the future.
Specialties
Top specialties
Anxiety
Depression
Life Transitions
Other specialties
ADHD
Coping Skills
Family Conflict
LGBTQ
Mood Disorders
Peer Relationships
School Issues
Self Esteem
Trauma and PTSD
Women's Issues
I identify as
White
Woman
Serves ages
Adults (18 to 64)
Licensed in
Delaware
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Accepts
Aetna
Aetna - ASR Health Benefits
Aetna - Allied Benefits
Aetna - Luminare
Aetna - Moda
Aetna - WebTPA
Aetna – HealthEZ
All Savers
Amerihealth Administrators
Anthem
Highmark
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Arlo
AvMed
Horizon
Cash - $150 per session
Centivo
Cigna
Cigna - HealthEZ
EAP:Cigna
EAP:Evernorth
EAP:UnitedHealthcare/Optum
Evernorth
GTEB
Geisinger - Commercial
Golden Rule
Harvard Pilgrim/UnitedHealthcare
Independence Administrators
Independence Blue Cross
Amerihealth
UnitedHealthcare/Optum
Optum
OptumHealth Complex Medical Conditions
Oscar
Oxford
Surest (formerly Bind)
Tufts Health/Cigna
UPMC Health Plan
United Medical Resources
UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance
UnitedHealthcare Shared Services
UnitedHealthcare StudentResources
Location
Virtual
My treatment methods
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
Exploring personal values is a passion of mine, and doing so leads to conversations that can facilitate ideas around how to identify and protect these values. ACT also aids in understanding emotions, increasing self-compassion, and considering what really matters most in life.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) offers an evidence-based approach to support people who have experienced traumatic events or complex trauma across the lifespan. EMDR also helps to get "unstuck" so that treatment feels both affirming and adaptive. EMDR can be offered as a stand-alone approach or in conjunction with other evidence-based modalities, and I welcome clients to consider whether EMDR may be a useful addition to our work together when it feels clinically appropriate.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
DBT provides ways to explore mindfulness practice, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and increasing the workability of approaching meaningful relationships. DBT also offers coping skills to assist with managing stressors of everyday life. I tend to utilize DBT as an accessory to other evidence-based approaches when helpful and provide psychoeducation about its utility along the way.
Eclectic
Learning how to approach my practice with skilled eclecticism has enabled me to approach therapy visits as client-centered and tailored to individual needs. Integrating aspects of ACT, EMDR, DBT, CBT, Motivational Interviewing, psychodynamic theory, and family systems approaches helps me think creatively about how to support individual short-term and long-term treatment goals that are most valuable to you. Leaning into meaningful eclecticism also enables me to pull from a myriad of evidence-based approaches to support individual growth.
Relational
In my opinion the most important aspect of counseling is the unique relationship we create over time. My clinical style is conversational, utilizes humor, and prioritizes our working relationship, in addition to your personal goals for counseling.