About Shannon
Shannon Bettencourt is a licensed marriage and family therapist in California with 22 years of clinical experience. She works with people facing relationship struggles, trauma and abuse, grief and loss, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, stress, intimacy concerns, and hoarding-related issues.
Background and approach
Shannon frames clients as the experts on their own stories and focuses on practical steps toward clearer goals. Her style is supportive and straightforward.
She helps people notice strengths they already have and uses those strengths to tackle difficult moments. Sessions are aimed at small, doable changes rather than big, sudden fixes.
The tone is collaborative and encouraging. Shannon draws on evidence-based therapeutic techniques to address trauma, grief, relationship patterns, and coping skills.
She helps clients develop better ways to manage stress, improve communication, and rebuild confidence after loss or hurt. Work with her is paced to each person’s needs and comfort level.
Shannon believes taking the first step takes courage, and she emphasizes empowerment throughout the process. She helps clients set practical goals and tracks progress in simple ways.
Conversations focus on what can be done now to make life feel more manageable. Clients meet by video, phone, live chat, or text messaging depending on what fits their schedules.
Sessions use a subscription model that can be canceled at any time. Sessions are offered in English and take place with a California-based clinician.
How evidence-based techniques translate to online care
Shannon uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques to help people recover from trauma and rebuild after loss. For trauma work she focuses on grounding, safety-building, and gradual processing to reduce overwhelm and improve daily functioning. For grief and loss she helps people make sense of what happened, find ways to remember and adjust, and build routines that support healing.Finding the right approach is part of the work and is decided together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels manageable, then try techniques that fit those needs. This is a collaborative process with adjustments over time based on what helps most.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to match different schedules and comfort levels. Video allows face-to-face conversation when visual cues help, phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited or for shorter check-ins, and messaging or live chat offer flexible, ongoing support between calls. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and to keep momentum between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
- Grief
Also works with
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English