ROBINSON, PA · TELEHEALTH STATEWIDE
Shelby O’Brien, MA, LPC
“I am the specialist on mental health and you are the specialist on yourself.”
Shelby O’Brien is a Licensed Professional Counselor at CPA Counseling’s Robinson Township office, also seeing clients by secure telehealth across Pennsylvania. She works one to one with late teens, young adults, and adults on anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, grief, anger, self-esteem, and life transitions — easygoing by design, with the client leading.
WHO SHELBY WORKS WITH
Who she’s for
Shelby works one to one with late teens, young adults, adults, and college students. She sees children too, though they are not who she is looking for. Individual therapy only, in person at Robinson or by telehealth across Pennsylvania.
why work with Shelby
You know yourself better than anyone
Her working premise: clients know themselves better than anyone, and her role is to help them explore their own thinking and arrive at realistic solutions that actually work for them. Collaborative in practice, not just in description.
HOW SHELBY WORKS
Seven approaches, and you choose the pace
Shelby uses a range of modalities and is explicit that clients take the reins. The method gets chosen for the person; the direction is yours.
CONDITIONS TREATED
What Shelby treats – who Shelby sees
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Trauma
- ADHD
- Grief & Loss
- Anger Management
- Life Transitions
- Controlling Relationships & Gaslighting
- Emotional Abuse
- Relationship & Marital Stress
- School / Academic
- Workplace Stress
- Self-Esteem
For younger clients
A calming presence — her clients’ words
“Together we can work to achieve your goals to a healthier version of yourself.”
CARE PHILOSOPHY
Easygoing. And you take the reins.
Easygoing is how Shelby describes her own style, and client-led is how she describes the method. She works from the premise that you know yourself better than anyone, which means the direction comes from you and the clinical skill comes from her — she is explicit about that division.
ABOUT SHELBY
Heard, seen, and accepted
Shelby O’Brien is a Licensed Professional Counselor with a master’s in Clinical Mental Health from Waynesburg University.
She has worked as a therapist since 2019 and became fully licensed in 2021. Before that, from 2016 to 2018, she worked as therapeutic staff support and as a mobile therapist while completing her master’s. Across her career she has worked with clients from age four through fifty, helping people manage anxiety, depression, anger, ADHD, grief, and life transitions, and process trauma.
Shelby works hard to provide clients with a space where they feel heard, seen, and accepted. She meets clients where they are and provides a safe space to explore their thoughts and feelings free from judgment. Her belief is that clients know themselves better than anyone — she is the specialist on mental health, and you are the specialist on yourself — so her role is to help you explore your own thinking and arrive at realistic solutions that work for your situation.
She describes her style as easygoing and lets clients take the reins, drawing on cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, client-centered, strengths-based, and solution-focused approaches. She has recently completed training for a trauma certification and has begun bringing somatic techniques into her sessions. She is a conversation-driven therapist and uses self-disclosure to help normalize what clients are going through, believing they deserve to know something about the person they are working with.
She sees clients at the Robinson Township office and by telehealth across Pennsylvania.
Working Since
Licensed 2021 · individual therapy
Client-Led by Design
You take the reins
Personalized Care Plans
No program commitments required
CONDITION GUIDE
Therapy guides from Shelby O’Brien
Relationships
Coping with a Roommate: Communication & Boundaries
Living with a roommate can stretch your patience and communication skills. Coping well comes down to communicating openly, compromising, respecting each other’s space, and setting clear expectations — rather than bottling things up until they boil over. Nicholas White, LPC helps teens and young adults across Pittsburgh navigate relationships and stress.
Mental Health
Animal-Assisted Therapy, Explained
Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) brings a trained animal — often a dog or a horse — into the therapeutic process as a calming, connecting presence that can lower anxiety and help people open up, especially children and those working through trauma. It’s delivered by clinicians specifically trained and teamed with a certified animal. Shelby O’Brien, LPC is drawn to the role animals can play in healing and hopes to one day bring a therapy dog into her practice at CPA Counseling.
Mental Health
Resentment and Mental Health: How to Let Go
Resentment is anger stemming from something that felt unfair; held in over time, it can harden into bitterness, which is linked to anxiety, depression, and strained relationships. Letting go — through forgiveness, self-compassion, empathy, and gratitude — protects your mental health. Amber Kottner, LPC helps clients across Pittsburgh’s South Hills, in person or by telehealth across Pennsylvania.