Shanika Katara Jones, LMHC

Shanika Katara Jones is a Florida-licensed mental health counselor with seven years of experience. She helps people who are feeling stressed, anxious, low in confidence, or weighed down by depression. Shanika focuses on practical steps people can take to feel more motivated and steady in day-to-day life.

She creates a calm, nonjudgmental space for talking about hard feelings. Conversations are honest and direct, with attention to what matters most to each person. Shanika aims to help clients name their goals and try small changes that can make a real difference.

Her work covers relationship concerns and self-esteem, and she supports people coping with big life changes. Shanika also addresses issues like abandonment, attachment patterns, jealousy, communication problems, and family of origin concerns. She works with mood disorders, trauma-related concerns, and substance-related challenges when they come up.

Shanika uses several therapeutic styles to match different needs. These include client-centered listening, cognitive behavioral approaches to shift unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, mindfulness practices to reduce reactivity, existential conversations about meaning and direction, and EMDR for processing trauma memories when appropriate.

The first sessions focus on understanding what is most troubling and what a person hopes will change. From there Shanika and the client set clear, doable goals and check progress at regular intervals. People who want straightforward guidance and a supportive therapist tend to find this approach helpful.

How therapy approaches translate to an online setting

Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and reflecting so clients feel heard and understood; online sessions can use this approach to prioritize what the client wants to discuss and to set personal goals. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, breaks problems into thoughts, feelings, and actions and uses practical exercises to test new ways of thinking and behaving; it works well for anxiety, depression, and stress that show up in daily routines. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, EMDR, is an approach used to help people process distressing memories and reactions when trauma is part of the picture.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Shanika will collaborate with each person to pick methods that match their needs, goals, and comfort level. That might mean trying CBT exercises one week, using mindfulness practices the next, or exploring deeper trauma work over time.

The biography does not list specific session formats, so confirm current options before booking. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, shorten travel time, and allow quieter check-ins when schedules are tight. It can also let people use written exercises or guided mindfulness between meetings to keep progress moving forward.