About Shama
Shama Joshi is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people manage anxiety, stress, depression, and relationship concerns. She works with adults facing big life changes and everyday pressures. Her tone is direct and compassionate, with practical steps to reduce worry and improve coping.
She takes time to learn each person's story before offering tools. That might mean teaching mindfulness skills, practicing new ways to talk with a partner, or breaking problems into smaller steps.
Background and approach
Sessions focus on what the client wants to change and how to get there in real life. Shama blends several proven methods to match a person’s needs. She draws on cognitive behavioral approaches to challenge unhelpful thoughts.
She uses acceptance-based ideas to help people live by their values even with difficult feelings. Her work also pays attention to how early relationships shape current patterns. Attachment-based ideas are used to understand closeness, trust, and boundary issues.
That perspective often pairs with skill work for communication and emotional regulation. With nine years of experience in Illinois, Shama offers straightforward guidance and practical homework. She helps people build routines and skills that fit daily life.
The goal is clearer thinking, better relationships, and increased resilience over time.
Approaches you can use in online sessions
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck. It emphasizes choosing actions that match your values so life feels more meaningful even when anxiety is present. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts affect feelings and behavior and teaches practical steps to change unhelpful patterns and ease distress. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, offers concrete skills for managing strong emotions and improving relationships through mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.Finding the right approach is part of therapy. The therapist will work with each person to figure out which methods fit best. That decision is collaborative and can shift as needs and goals change.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls let people work face-to-face from different locations. Phone sessions require less bandwidth and can be easier during a busy day. Live chat and text sessions are useful for brief check-ins, homework help, or when typing feels more comfortable than speaking. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or school schedules while using approaches like ACT, CBT, or DBT effectively.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Depression
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 9 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
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