About Lily
Lily Shinn is a licensed clinical social worker practicing in Illinois with 25 years of experience. She focuses on helping people who feel overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, grief, or major life changes. Lily aims to make the first step into therapy easier and more manageable for those who are nervous about starting.
She creates a calm, nonjudgmental space where clients can talk through difficult feelings. In sessions she listens closely and helps people name their emotions.
Background and approach
She works with practical strategies to build confidence and improve day-to-day coping. Lily supports people dealing with relationship strain, intimacy concerns, parenting stress, and career challenges. She also assists those facing chronic illness, caregiving burdens, end-of-life planning, and grief after loss.
Her practice includes attention to trauma, abuse, ADHD, and issues tied to family of origin. Her style is straightforward and compassionate. Conversations are focused on what is happening now and what can be changed.
She encourages small steps and realistic goals so progress feels achievable. Clients can expect collaborative sessions that balance listening with practical suggestions. Lily emphasizes building skills for daily life, reducing shame, and improving self-esteem.
She helps people find ways to move forward when life feels stuck.
Practical approaches for online care
Many clients benefit from evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on clear goals and usable skills. One approach emphasizes identifying emotions and building concrete coping strategies to reduce daily stress and anxiety; it helps with panic, worry, and overwhelming feelings. Another approach focuses on processing grief and loss by creating space to tell difficult stories and practice small steps toward meaning and adjustment; it supports people during bereavement and major life transitions.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about their concerns, goals, and preferences, and together they decide which methods to try. Plans are adjusted over time so therapy keeps fitting what the person needs.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to match different days and rhythms. Video calls are useful for a more face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can work well when bandwidth or camera use is limited, live chat is a shorter check-in option, and text messaging lets people stay connected between sessions. These formats aim to make therapy more flexible and easier to fit into a busy life.
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does Lily help with?
How would you describe her therapeutic style?
What is her professional background?
Where is Lily licensed and based?
Which languages are supported in sessions?
What session formats are available?
How are sessions paid for?
What should I do to begin working together?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English