Therapists in Tucson, AZ

Danielle LaPorte asked the question best, “Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?” Can you remember when you loved and accepted yourself unapologetically, and embraced all the things about you that make you unique? As we age, we gain knowledge from life experiences and through those experiences we can soar to greatness or we can break and lose sight of who we really are and become someone we were never meant to be. When we become someone less than who we were meant to be we can begin to experience anxiety, depression, substance abuse, loss of relationships and functional distress.

Shireen has more than 20 years of experience working in the mental health and substance abuse fields, both in community behavioral health and in private practice settings. She has extensive experience working with individuals, families, and groups from many diverse backgrounds and understands the importance that culture plays in helping people address their unmet needs. Shireen believes in the mind/body connection and utilizes an integrative and holistic approach to empower individuals to increase their awareness and self-efficacy. She draws on the client's own strengths, recognizing that the client is the expert of their own life.

Does your cup feel empty? Are you surviving and not really thriving? As an artist, art therapist, and counselor these questions are instrumental to my work. I'm most passionate about using vulnerability as a strength to foster a brave therapeutic space that recognizes healing beyond mere coping and symptom reduction. I truly believe in the power of therapy and creative self-expression in helping individuals develop greater self-awareness and meaning-making to meet their holistic needs (mind, body, and spirit). Using an array of expressive arts and traditional therapy tools post-traumatic growth and healing can become more tangible.

My treatment approach derives from an accumulation of lived experience, extensive education, and post-graduate internships. This gathering of knowledge has provided me with the inner wisdom to help guide my clients toward clarity and greater emotional intelligence. This is done through a curious and compassionate examination of the self, and ways in which we have allowed our past to define us. I work from a strengths-based and relational model, meaning that trust must be established first before we can “do the work.” I am not keen on diagnosis, but use them instead, as a guide towards how I can best serve you. I enjoy working with