About Shari
Shari Peterson is a licensed independent clinical social worker with more than 20 years in mental health. She has practiced in community mental health, schools, and outpatient settings. Shari brings a calm, direct style and focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, mood struggles, addiction, and the effects of trauma.
Her work emphasizes relationship and strength. She aims to create an authentic, warm space where clients feel heard and respected.
Background and approach
Sessions are individualized to match each person's needs and goals rather than following a rigid formula. Shari draws on several practical approaches in session. She uses client-centered techniques to follow what matters to the person.
Cognitive behavioral strategies are used to identify and shift unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns. Somatic ideas help people notice how their body holds stress and trauma. Over two decades she has supported people facing depression, bipolar concerns, ADHD, eating and sleeping problems, parenting strain, and substance use challenges.
She has also worked with those affected by complex trauma, abuse, and domestic violence. Her additional focus areas include attachment issues, body image, chronic pain and illness, codependency, dissociation, and family of origin problems. Shari works in Minnesota and conducts sessions in English.
She holds a Minnesota LICSW, number 25629. Her practice uses a subscription model for sessions, and scheduling follows the platform process for matching and booking.
Therapeutic approaches you can use online
Shari often blends client-centered work with somatic ideas and cognitive behavioral strategies. Client-centered work means the therapist follows the person's priorities and builds a supportive relationship to guide change. Somatic-informed work invites attention to bodily sensations and movement to help release stress and trauma held in the body. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and patterns and trying new behaviors to ease symptoms and improve daily functioning.Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the process. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their goals, comfort level, and what shows up in sessions. That may mean using talk-based reflection one week, leaning into body-based exercises the next, and practicing CBT skills between sessions.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face connection from home, while phone sessions can work when video isn't possible. Live chat and text-based messaging make brief check-ins and skill practice easier between sessions. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and keep continuity when schedules or locations change.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Minnesota
- Languages
- English