About Shanua
Shanua Smith is a licensed professional counselor with a focus on stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and relationship concerns. She practices in South Dakota and brings 19 years of clinical experience to her work. Shanua aims to help people manage intense emotions and cope with life changes.
She listens first and then helps people set clear goals. Sessions are practical and direct. Techniques are chosen to match each person's needs and pace.
How Shanua works
Shanua uses approaches such as Client-Centered Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice thinking patterns and make small, workable changes. She also draws on Trauma-Focused Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing when past events continue to cause distress.
People come for help with many concerns including grief, addictions, intimacy issues, eating and sleeping problems, parenting struggles, anger, bipolar mood concerns, and coping with caregiving stress. She also addresses attachment and abandonment wounds, body image, dissociation, and the emotional effects of cancer or natural disasters. Her sessions blend listening with hands-on skills such as problem solving, emotion regulation, and communication practice.
Motivational Interviewing is used when people want help making changes but feel unsure how to begin. Shanua focuses on building resilience and clearer choices in daily life. To begin, people complete a short questionnaire and schedule sessions that fit their life.
Therapy uses a subscription model that can be canceled at any time and is delivered through video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging.
Shanua lists 5 ways of working on the entry:
What Shanua works with
The areas below are the ones Shanua selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LPC-MH |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 19 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | South Dakota |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Shanua's Approaches Fit Online Therapy
Shanua combines Client-Centered Therapy and Trauma-Focused approaches when working online. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and building a strong working relationship so people feel heard and guided toward their goals. Trauma-Focused Therapy targets the lingering effects of traumatic events with structured steps to reduce reactivity and improve daily coping.She may also use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help identify unhelpful thoughts and develop practical behavior changes. CBT online can include simple homework and in-session practice that translate into day-to-day gains. Shanua works collaboratively to find the best approach based on each person's needs, goals, and preferences rather than imposing a single method.
Online sessions are available by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to suit different schedules and moments. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can work when bandwidth is low, live chat is useful for brief check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, and busy lives.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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