Sharon (Shonnie) Brown

Sharon (Shonnie) Brown is a licensed marriage and family therapist with thirty years of practice in California. She helps people manage stress, anxiety, relationship problems, grief, depression, and transitions like divorce or career change. Her style is direct and warm, and she often uses writing as a tool to help people process strong emotions.

Shonnie trained at the University of California, Berkeley and earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology from JFK University. She has worked with individuals and couples and has led groups on separation, infidelity, co-parenting education, and social anxiety. Her long experience includes helping people with toxic workplace stress, intimacy concerns, and self-esteem struggles.

Her approach blends Client-Centered Therapy with cognitive methods, attachment-focused ideas, and elements of existential thinking. She emphasizes practical tools - goal setting, coping skills, mindfulness exercises, and optional writing activities - alongside building a trustworthy relationship in the room.

Shonnie often addresses problems that come from early wounds and trouble self-soothing. She focuses on increasing self-compassion, self-protection, and self-love while teaching skills to manage strong feelings like anger, shame, or jealousy. Progress is seen as a series of small steps rather than sudden fixes.

People who choose her work with an expectation of honest feedback and steady guidance. To begin, she asks clients to identify clear goals and uses straightforward strategies to help people move toward those goals.

How therapy approaches translate to online care