William Shonts, LPC-MHSP

William Shonts is a licensed professional counselor in Tennessee with 22 years of experience. He focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and the strain of major life changes. He aims to meet each person with respect, sensitivity, and a steady, supportive presence.

He adapts conversations and plans to fit each person's situation instead of using one-size-fits-all steps. Sessions are intended to help people identify what feels most helpful, learn practical skills, and build on strengths they already have. William emphasizes empowerment and steady progress rather than quick fixes.

His work includes helping people facing family conflict, caregiver stress, compassion fatigue, and health-related challenges such as cancer. He also addresses attachment difficulties, abandonment concerns, codependency, body image, and situations involving trauma or domestic violence. The focus is on understandable, doable steps for everyday life.

William uses several conversational and skills-based methods in session. These include client-centered approaches that follow the person's lead, cognitive behavioral tools to change unhelpful thinking and behavior, dialectical skills for managing strong emotions, emotionally focused ways of improving close relationships, and mindfulness practices to reduce stress.

He encourages people to take small, clear steps toward change and supports them through setbacks. If someone wants to begin, they are asked to use the Start Therapy button and complete a short matching questionnaire to schedule according to availability.

How his approaches translate to online work

Client-centered therapy focuses on following the person's concerns and reflecting what they want to talk about. Online sessions can use that same open conversation style to help someone feel heard and understood. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) teaches simple, practical skills to identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which can be practiced between sessions and reviewed in later meetings. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) offers clear emotion-regulation and distress-tolerance strategies for intense feelings and conflict.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. William will talk with each person about goals and preferences, then suggest which methods to try first. That plan can be adjusted based on what helps and what feels doable in daily life, so therapy stays collaborative and practical.

The original biography does not list specific online formats, so confirm current session options before booking. In general, online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, shorten travel time, and allow for focused skill practice between meetings. Some people find phone check-ins easier when bandwidth is low or when they want a brief check-in without video. Licensed professionals can use different formats to match a person’s schedule and communication needs.