About Brian
Dr. Brian Shaffer is a licensed counselor who focuses on helping people reduce stress and manage anxiety. He has 20 years of experience working with addiction, grief, trauma, depression, and other life challenges.
He uses practical, person-centered methods to help people set and reach goals for a healthier life. He listens first and adapts techniques to each person's needs. Sessions often include problem-solving, skill building, and talking through past events that still cause pain.
Background and approach
He also respects and incorporates a client's spiritual beliefs when that matters to the person. Dr. Shaffer uses a blend of approaches such as acceptance and commitment methods, cognitive behavioral techniques, attachment-focused work, and client-centered conversations.
That mix helps him address patterns like avoidance, anger, low self-esteem, compulsive behaviors, and relationship struggles. He aims to help people find practical ways to cope and move forward. People who are juggling caregiving, chronic illness, career stress, or recovery from addiction will find his approach grounded and straightforward.
He also works with concerns tied to identity and intimacy, including LGBT issues and kink-aware topics. His background includes supporting those facing loss, chronic pain, and major life transitions. Dr.
Shaffer practices from Pennsylvania and speaks English. He offers sessions by video, phone, live chat, and text messaging. People who want to begin can complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule a time that fits their needs.
Approaches that translate to online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings without getting stuck, and then choose actions that match their values. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and changing behaviors to reduce anxiety and depression. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship patterns affect current bonds and helps people build healthier ways of relating.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss your goals and preferences and adapt techniques so they fit your situation. That collaborative process helps pick which methods to emphasize over time, rather than sticking to one fixed plan.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video lets you use visual cues for things like emotion work, phone can be simpler when bandwidth is limited, and chat or text can suit brief check-ins or people who prefer writing. These options make it easier to fit sessions into a busy schedule, manage caregiving or work demands, and keep continuity when life is in flux.
Questions people ask
What concerns does he help with?
What is his therapeutic style like?
How much clinical experience does he have?
What credentials and location are on record?
In which language are sessions offered and are international clients supported?
Which session formats are available?
How are costs handled for sessions?
How do I begin working with him?
What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Existential Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania
- Languages
- English
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