About David
David Shirly is a licensed mental health counselor with ten years of clinical experience. He uses clear, practical methods to help people facing stress, anxiety, addictions, depression, and relationship struggles. He works with adults on issues like sleep problems, intimacy concerns, and attention difficulties.
Sessions are straightforward and focused on what the person wants to change. In sessions he starts by listening carefully to the story you bring. He then helps set concrete goals and builds simple, step-by-step strategies to reach them.
Background and approach
These strategies may include changing unhelpful thoughts, practicing new ways to communicate, or learning skills to manage strong emotions. David combines client-centered work with cognitive behavioral and dialectical behavior techniques. That means he pays attention to a person's felt experience while teaching practical tools to reduce distress and cope with cravings, anger, or panic.
Mindfulness exercises and emotionally focused tasks appear when they fit the client's goals. He has supported people through trauma, attachment wounds, codependency, and substance use concerns. He also addresses niche issues such as BDSM, kink, body image, and avoidance patterns in relationships.
The focus is on building resilience and clearer boundaries rather than labels. David holds a Licensed Mental Health Counselor credential in New York and Florida and practices from Florida. Sessions are offered in English and can be scheduled online by following the site's matching and booking steps.
How therapeutic approaches guide online care
David often uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help people identify and change patterns of thinking that keep stress and anxiety active. CBT focuses on practical steps such as testing unhelpful thoughts, changing small behaviors, and building routines that improve sleep and mood.He also uses dialectical behavior therapy skills to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and better interpersonal effectiveness. DBT-style exercises can help with strong reactions, anger, cravings, and relationship conflicts by offering concrete skills to practice between sessions.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will listen to your goals and work together to try methods that fit your needs and preferences, adjusting the plan as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video calls are useful for in-depth conversation and skill coaching, phone sessions can be simpler when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging works well for short check-ins or ongoing support between appointments. These options make it easier to schedule therapy around work, caregiving, or travel while still using the same therapeutic methods described above.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Florida, New York
- Languages
- English
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