About Shelly
Shelly Flachs is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 12 years of professional practice based in Illinois.
Background and approach
She integrates evidence-informed strategies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT), Mindfulness Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing to help people navigate complex emotional and behavioral challenges.
Shelly emphasizes strengths and practical tools to address concerns like stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, bipolar disorder, and addictions while tailoring interventions to each person's goals and circumstances.
Her work also covers a wide array of related issues including relationship and intimacy stresses, family and communication problems, grief, self-esteem struggles, eating and sleeping difficulties, parenting and caregiver stress, ADHD, and compassion fatigue. Shelly takes a collaborative stance that centers clients' priorities and encourages focused, goal-oriented steps toward change.
She maintains active licensure as an LCSW with numbers IL LCSW 149.017053 and ME LCSW LC15258, practices in Illinois, and offers sessions in English. Practical session options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules and preferences.
Evidence-Informed Therapies Delivered Online
Shelly commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Emotionally-Focused Therapy as part of her online practice. CBT focuses on identifying and shifting unhelpful thoughts and behaviors through practical exercises and skills, which can be useful for anxiety, depression, and stress management. Emotionally-Focused Therapy attends to emotional experiences and attachment patterns to improve connection and resolve relationship pain, helping with intimacy-related issues and communication struggles.Selecting the right approach is treated as a collaborative process. The therapist works with each person to explore goals, preferences, and symptoms, and then suggests ways to blend methods like CBT, EFT, DBT skills, or mindfulness practices to fit the client's needs. This collaborative planning helps tailor sessions for measurable progress while adapting as goals evolve.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to accommodate different schedules and comfort levels. These options make it easier to attend regularly, practice skills between sessions, and maintain continuity when life is busy, while allowing licensed professionals to deliver structured, evidence-informed care across distances.
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 12 years
- Licensed
- Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Iowa
- Languages
- English