About Sheila
Sheila Funk-Jansen is a licensed clinical social worker who brings 25 years of experience to her practice in Iowa. She offers calm, straightforward support for people facing anxiety, depression, grief, relationship strain, parenting stress, and major life changes. Sheila focuses on practical steps and steady encouragement so clients can move through hard moments at their own pace.
She uses approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing to guide sessions.
Background and approach
That means conversations focus on current challenges, finding small, workable changes, and building motivation to try new choices. Sessions are conversational and goal-oriented rather than overly technical. Her background includes a Master of Social Work degree and many years working with people affected by addiction, family-of-origin struggles, caregiver stress, and medical or life crises.
Sheila draws on that experience to help clients who face issues like abandonment, blended family dynamics, cancer-related stress, or the aftermath of separation and divorce. In session she prioritizes the relationship with each person. She aims to create an open, nonjudgmental space where clients can talk honestly and test new ways of coping.
Practical tools and clear steps are offered when helpful, and the pace is guided by each person’s needs. Sheila provides appointments on weekdays and some weekends, and she works with scheduling to help people connect sooner when possible. Sessions are available through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging.
Therapeutic approaches that work online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and understanding the person in front of the therapist. It prioritizes empathy and helps people feel heard while they talk through worries like grief, relationship strain, or low self-esteem.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions interact. It uses practical exercises and small experiments to reduce anxiety and depressive patterns and to teach new ways of handling stress and anger.
Finding the right approach is a shared process. The therapist will talk with the person about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. Together they will try methods and adjust them so the work fits the client’s life and pace.
Online sessions make it easier to fit therapy into a busy routine. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when visual connection matters. Phone sessions can work well when bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging offer quick access between sessions and a way to reflect in writing. These options let people choose what helps them participate consistently and comfortably.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Iowa, Illinois, Missouri
- Languages
- English