Shelly Thome

Shelly Thome is a Licensed Professional Counselor practicing at Focus Counseling in Glendale, working by secure video with children, teens, and adults across Arizona. Her specialties are anxiety, depression, and trauma, and she comes to them with more than twenty years of experience spent in the places where people actually run into trouble — schools, career settings, probation, outpatient programs, and hospitals — helping individuals remove the barriers in their lives. She is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and a Certified Compassion Fatigue Professional, and she describes her work as honoring the courage it takes to recognize when you need support, whether that is coping with a difficult situation, improving your satisfaction with life, or standing beside a loved one through their own hard time.

Her approach pairs a trauma-informed foundation with cognitive behavioral strategies and mindfulness, and it is collaborative by design: in her own words, you and she work together toward your goals. The outcomes she names on her practice page are concrete rather than abstract — improved self-esteem, decreased anxiety, stronger coping skills, lower stress, better emotional regulation, and more positive thinking. Her style is warm and supportive.

Alongside her core specialties she works with children and teens, with self-esteem, and with the particular strain that helping professionals carry. Compassion fatigue is a through-line in her practice: beyond individual sessions she leads community trainings for teachers, counselors, and other helpers on recognizing it, setting boundaries, and reconnecting with purpose, and she offers a program for educators, parents, and teens on recognizing early warning signs of emotional distress and knowing how to start a supportive conversation. She is also an Arizona Board-approved clinical supervisor for counselors working toward independent licensure.

Shelly earned her Master in Counseling at Chapman University in 1998 and is licensed by the State of Arizona as a Licensed Professional Counselor, #LPC-17691. Sessions are 45 minutes at $140, with a scholarship program that reserves a quarter of appointments at a reduced fee. She is in-network with Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Carelon Behavioral Health, Cigna, Curative, and Providence Health Plan, and also sees private-pay clients. A free 15-minute consultation is available.