I believe people make sense in the context of what they’ve lived through. The things so many of us struggle with, anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, disconnection, self-doubt, relationship patterns, aren’t character flaws. They’re usually really smart adaptations to hard things. They made sense once. They may not be serving you anymore.
I work in a way that is warm, relational, and honest. I don’t sit outside your experience and observe it. I am in it with you. Two people, in honest relationship, figuring it out together. The messy parts, the parts you’ve been managing for decades, the feelings your body holds that words haven’t reached yet.
The more honest someone becomes with themselves, the more real their relationships become. The more real their relationships become, the more they find their way back to themselves.
Sessions are collaborative, somatic, and real. I am not here to tell you who to be. I am here to help you remember.
I work with adults navigating grief, relationships, identity, anxiety, and the quieter struggles that are harder to name. Sometimes people come to therapy in a crisis. Sometimes they come because they’re tired of surviving. And sometimes they come because they’ve hit a point where they don’t want to keep abandoning themselves to keep functioning.
Whatever brings you here, you don’t need the right words before you start. You just need to be willing to show up honestly.
I am a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with over 25 years of experience sitting with people in some of the hardest moments of their lives. I have worked across schools, community organizations, and justice-involved settings. I have taught. I have written. I have lived a great deal of what I bring into the room.
I am trained in trauma-informed, somatic, and relational approaches. That means we pay attention to what your body is holding, not just what your mind is saying. We slow down. We get curious. We work with the nervous system, not against it.
I believe healing is not photogenic. It doesn’t happen in a single breakthrough or a perfectly timed insight. It happens in small, honest moments that accumulate over time into something genuinely different. My job is to be in that process with you.
I currently offer individual and group therapy sessions for adults. Sessions are typically 50 minutes and held in person or via telehealth, depending on your preference.
To inquire about availability or schedule a free 15-minute consultation, fillout the contact form or reach out directly at info@cindyjillshortt.com
Sandplay therapy is used with clients of all ages and with writers, artists, and makers who are more fluent in image than explanation. In the presence of a trained practitioner, the client builds a world in a tray of sand using miniature figures. The tray holds what is hard to say out loud. What surfaces, whether painful or full of light, helps a person integrate experiences from the past and present. It is not a tool for diagnosis. It is a space where the psyche can begin to find its way.
For people who already live in the language of image, symbol, and making, this work tends to feel less like therapy and more like coming home. There are no words required. What cannot yet be said takes shape. The imagination can do what it does best.
