New to Grow
Hello, my name is Shannon Dunnan. I specialize at working with individuals struggling with substance use, addiction, anxiety, depression, trauma, life-transitions, relationships, attachment, and emotion regulation challenges. Reaching out for support can feel both brave and uncertain, but beginning therapy is an important step toward overcoming challenges and learning new ways to manage life’s obstacles. My goal is to create a safe, supportive, and accountable space where you can grow, heal, and work toward meaningful change. I look forward to partnering with you to better understand the challenges you are facing and to help you move toward the goals you hope to achieve.
The first session is all about starting to get to know one another. This is one of the most important sessions since this is where we set the tone for how our relationship will work moving forward together. I always seek to create an atmosphere where you feel safe and supported to discuss, process, and address the reasons that motivated you to reach out for support. With that said, there are few things I am required and will need to do in our first session. First we will discuss how everything you discuss in therapy is confidential except for a few exceptions that we will discuss together. We will also discuss the risks and benefits of therapy. We will also talk a little about how I work as a therapist and you can ask questions. To help me get to know and understand you better, we will work through an initial counseling intake together where I will be asking questions about you. This will help me better understand the reasons you are seeking help, what your goals are, the strengths you have that will help you reach your goals, and areas where you may need support to reach your goals. We will also work on creating a treatment plan. Your treatment plan is the roadmap we will use to make sure we are heading in the right direction and addressing the reasons you have engaged in counseling.
My approach to therapy is very client-centered; that is, the pace the work is done and what is addressed is up to you. I also tend to be a little more directive than other therapists. This means that I combine therapy with teaching. My goal is to help you learn how to be your own therapist. I believe therapy is where individuals learn and develop the skills to manage their struggle and/or symptoms effectively on their own and/or with the support of friends and family around them.
The foundation and expertise that supports my therapeutic modality is attachment theory and trauma. Understanding how early childhood relationships and hurts have shaped an individual's experience of their self and the world around them supports personal insight into "why I do what I do" and helps them see how to change what they didn't think they could. From this position, I specialize at working with individuals struggling with substance use, addiction, anxiety, depression, trauma, life-transitions, relationships, attachment, and emotion regulation challenges. I also have expertise working with individuals from a Christian faith background, integrating therapeutic modalities to support their goals for therapy, heal, and encourage their faith.
Attachment-based
Attachment development in early childhood provides the foundation for a person's felt sense of self, identity, and emotional functioning. I use attachment as the foundational lens that informs my understanding of the person in front of me. This helps me understand how a person's early childhood experiences inform that person's understanding of them self, others, the world, and how they relate emotionally to each one in the here and now.
Psychodynamic
This process of therapy helps clients develop insight into their unconscious internal patterns and processes, developed in early childhood that shape and motivate current interpersonal behavior patterns in the here and now. Clients who engage in this type of therapy develop a deeper self-awareness, learning what they may not know about themselves and enabling them to identify these unconscious patterns and make changes improving relationships and overall emotional functioning.
Trauma Informed Care
Understanding trauma supports the understanding that 'all behavior makes sense in its context.' When we understand the experiences that an individual has been through that has hurt them, their behavior starts to make sense. When this happens, the innate capacity an individual has to heal comes back online, and healing starts to happen.
Person-centered (Rogerian)
Person-centered therapy emphasizes that all individuals are essentially good and have an innate capacity for healing when in an empathic, genuine, non-judgmental and supportive relationship. Experience has taught me that all behavior makes sense in its context; that is, when people are engaged in a supportive non-judgmental relationship, there are able to look curiously at themselves to discover what isn't working and choose the changes they want to make that moves them towards their goals.
Psychoeducation
Using psychoeducation supports client's understanding of the nuts and bolts of how things work. When clients understand how their early childhood experiences influence them, how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors work together, and how trauma impacts the mind and body, they are better prepared and able to grasp how to change unwanted reactions and behaviors. Individuals often experience a great deal of relief by understanding what is happening and that they have the capacity to change it.