Sherry McClanahan, LPC

Sherry McClanahan is a Licensed Professional Counselor who brings a straightforward and compassionate style to sessions. She focuses on individual adults and aims to help people identify strengths and build toward the changes they want. Sherry emphasizes practical steps and clear collaboration during therapy.

She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, mindfulness techniques, and solution-focused methods to address stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma-related concerns. Sessions typically involve identifying unhelpful thoughts, trying new ways of coping, and practicing small changes between meetings. The approach is goal-oriented and grounded in everyday actions.

Sherry also works with issues around relationships, attachment and abandonment, and problems like codependency, communication struggles, and jealousy. She supports people navigating gender dysphoria, LGBT-related concerns, body image, and alternative sex culture topics such as BDSM and kink. Trauma, abuse, and the fallout of past loss are areas she commonly addresses.

Her practice operates in Virginia and she conducts sessions in English. Sherry aims to create a welcoming atmosphere for people from diverse backgrounds, and she describes her setting as LGBTQ safe. She keeps a practical focus and encourages clients to use skills between sessions to track progress.

With three years listed as a counselor under the LPC credential, Sherry combines present-focused techniques with mindfulness and narrative elements to help people rewrite unhelpful stories about themselves. She works with each person to set clear steps and measure small successes over time.

How therapy approaches translate to online care

Sherry uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people spot and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which is useful for anxiety, depression, and stress. Sessions include learning specific skills and trying them between meetings to see what helps.

She also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills and mindfulness techniques to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and present-moment awareness. Those tools can help with intense feelings, relationship patterns, and coping after trauma.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Sherry collaborates with each person to choose methods that match their goals and preferences. She reviews progress and adjusts the plan so sessions stay practical and relevant.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions are suited to deeper weekly work, phone calls can fit into a busy day or require less bandwidth, live chat is useful for shorter check-ins, and text messaging allows ongoing support between sessions. These options offer flexibility so people can use therapy around work, family, or other commitments.