About Shelia
Dr Shelia Rivers is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 15 years of experience supporting people through stress, anxiety, relationship struggles, trauma and abuse, depression, and major life changes. She holds a Master of Social Work and a doctorate in social work, along with a Master of Public Health.
Dr Rivers practices from Mississippi and brings a practical, down-to-earth style to sessions. Her work focuses on helping people build coping skills and find steady footing after difficult events.
Background and approach
She regularly addresses issues such as attachment and abandonment concerns, codependency, communication and commitment problems, and the effects of dissociation or impulsivity. She also supports people navigating divorce, domestic violence, fatherhood issues, immigration challenges, and grief about major life changes. Dr Rivers offers a direct but compassionate approach.
She tends to use short-term tools alongside deeper trauma work, helping people set small goals and try things between sessions. She also designs group and program work, including a wellness program called Girl Get Your Life Together aimed at shifting from survival to more purpose and balance. Sessions with Dr Rivers are collaborative.
She listens first to understand individual history and current needs, then suggests practical steps to reduce symptoms and improve daily functioning. Her style mixes problem-solving, skill practice, and unpacking painful experiences when needed. People who choose her can expect a therapist who emphasizes honesty, steady pacing, and real-world strategies.
She practices in Mississippi and conducts sessions in English.
Evidence-based approaches and online care
Dr Rivers regularly uses cognitive behavioral techniques to help people change unhelpful thinking patterns and try new behaviors. CBT is practical and goal-focused, often helping with anxiety, depression, and stress by teaching skills to manage symptoms and test new habits.She also uses trauma-focused interventions to address the effects of past abuse or overwhelming events. These approaches help identify how traumatic experiences shape reactions now and introduce ways to reduce reactivity and regain control over daily life.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist listens to a person’s history, current challenges, and goals, then suggests methods that fit their needs and preferences. Clients and the therapist adjust the plan together as progress and new issues emerge.
Online therapy with her can include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video sessions let people work face-to-face without travel. Phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging support ongoing contact and quick check-ins between longer sessions, offering flexibility for busy schedules or those who prefer writing to talking.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Fatherhood issues
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Mississippi, Louisiana
- Languages
- English
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