About Lily
Lily Shinn is a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of professional experience in Illinois. She focuses on practical support for everyday struggles like stress, anxiety, grief, low self-esteem, and big life changes. She emphasizes a welcoming space where people can talk honestly and feel heard.
Taking the first step can feel hard, and she acknowledges that step with respect. Over her career she has helped people address a wide range of concerns, including depression, relationship and intimacy issues, anger, career stress, and caregiver strain.
Background and approach
She also works with clients dealing with chronic illness, aging and geriatric issues, and the effects of trauma and abuse. ADHD is included among the areas she lists, alongside parenting and family-origin concerns. Her style aims to be straightforward and practical.
Sessions typically focus on identifying what’s getting in the way, trying out concrete strategies, and checking what helps. She prefers short, clear conversations that lead to real changes in daily routines and thinking patterns. Lily also supports people facing end-of-life and hospice issues, bereavement, and complex feelings like guilt or shame.
She brings long-term experience to complex cases and helps people pace progress so change feels manageable. People who reach out can expect an experienced therapist who listens, suggests workable steps, and adjusts the plan as needs shift. She offers sessions in English and conducts work from Illinois.
Therapeutic Techniques and Online Care That Fit Your Life
Many of the methods Lily uses are evidence-based and focused on changing day-to-day patterns. One common approach is problem-focused work that breaks larger concerns into small, testable steps to try between sessions; this helps when anxiety, motivation, or routine problems get in the way. Another approach emphasizes emotion processing and coping skills for grief, trauma, or difficult feelings like shame and guilt; it helps people name feelings, learn calming tools, and make space for healing.Finding the right mix of techniques is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals and preferences, try methods that seem likely to help, and adjust the plan based on what the client notices and reports. This means the work evolves with progress and feedback rather than following a fixed script.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to match different needs. Video is useful for deeper conversations and face-to-face interaction. Phone sessions can be easier when less bandwidth is available or a quick check-in fits a break at work. Text and chat options work for short updates, ongoing check-ins, or when someone prefers written communication. These formats increase flexibility and make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
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