About Shannan Blum, LMFT | Virtual Therapist for Women Over 40
Hey. I’m Shannan – and I want to be upfront with you about something most therapists don’t say on their About page.
I’ve survived growing up with alcoholic parents. Divorce. Blended family chaos. Religious deconstruction and getting out of a cult. Launching four kids into the world. Menopause. And now, a whole new chapter that I genuinely didn’t see coming – one that feels more like myself than anything before it.
I’m not sharing this to impress you. I’m sharing it because I think you deserve to know who’s going to be in the room with you. And because the best thing I bring to this work isn’t my clinical training – it’s that I’ve actually been in the wreckage and figured out how to build something true from it.
Why Virtual Therapy for Women Over 40?
Because women in midlife are wildly underserved by mainstream therapy.
We’ve spent decades doing for everyone else – managing households, raising children, holding careers together, keeping relationships afloat. We’re experts at functioning. What we often haven’t been given permission to do is actually heal. To ask what we want. To stop performing okayness and start living something real.
Midlife – with all its upheaval and loss and uncomfortable clarity – is actually an invitation. If we receive it, it’s the stage where we finally stop outsourcing our sense of self and come home to who we actually are. That’s what I’m here to help you do.
My Background & Credentials
I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with decades of clinical experience. I’m licensed in:
Indiana — License #35002472A
California — License #86791
Texas — License #203219
My clinical training spans somatic psychotherapy, trauma therapy, DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), inner child and parts-based work, Jungian depth psychology, and eating disorder treatment. I’ve done clinical training, speaking engagements, and professional consultations across all of these areas.
I also use Tarot as a therapeutic projective tool, listed on the Intuitive Clinicians Council Directory, as well as with Pagan Affirming Therapy & Healthcare – because I believe healing doesn’t have to stay inside conventional lines to be rigorous and real.
My Approach: Integrated, Embodied, and Honest
I call my way of working an “Integrated Clinical Framework” – which just means I refuse to choose between evidence-based and soulful. I blend:
- Regular talk therapy tools – CBT, DBT distress tolerance skills, trauma-processing techniques.
- Somatic and body-based approaches – because your nervous system holds your history, and insight alone won’t update it.
- Jungian depth work – archetypes w/Tarot, shadow work, and the kind of meaning-making that helps midlife make sense.
- Non-religious spiritual practices – nature-based frameworks, seasonal cycles, intuition work.
No dogma. No doctrine. I’m not going to tell you to just reframe your thoughts or promise you spiritual bypassing dressed up as healing.
What I will do is meet you where you are, tell you what I actually see, and help you do the work that creates real change – not just better coping.
A Note About My Approach to Healing
For me, healing isn’t about becoming the best version of yourself. It’s not a destination. It’s not a box you check.
Healing is a lifelong process of choosing self-presence – even when it’s uncomfortable, even when it breaks things open, even when it means disappointing people who preferred the version of you that didn’t ask for anything.
My mess is my message. I haven’t arrived. I’m doing this alongside you, in my own life, in real time. That’s not a liability. It’s the thing that makes this work actually work.
What You Can Expect Working With Me
Directness – I’ll tell you what patterns I notice. I won’t dance around it.
Warmth – I genuinely care about the people I work with, and that will be obvious.
A little irreverence – I’m almost 60, I’m pro-age, and I have exactly zero patience for pretense. Bring your real self.
An integrated framework – we’ll use whatever tools actually work for you, not whatever’s fashionable.
Respect for your autonomy – you are the final authority in your own life. My job is to help you trust that.
Sessions are 55 minutes, held virtually, at $180 per session. Self-pay only, not paneled with any insurance. I work exclusively with women.
Ready to See If We’re the Right Fit?
I offer a free consultation – a real conversation, no pressure, no sales pitch. We’ll talk about what’s going on for you and whether working together makes sense. Book a call and let’s find out.
My goal is to foster a safe, inclusive space for exploration, self-awareness, and personal autonomy. Together, we’ll unpack the challenges, nurture your self-trust, and reconnect you with your embodied experience.
Shannan is a really unique therapist in how she blends her training with her life experience. Gurl’s insight is amazing! I didn’t think I could really sustain healing until I worked with her – don’t wait a minute longer!
My only regret is that I didn’t find this type of a healing process when I was younger and raising my children. I know healing is always possible, and I’m grateful I’ve learned these steps so I can share them with my grown children. Such a game-changer!
My healing happens at moments I least expect, and this type of a process helped me recognize those moments more clearly and establish a sustainable healing LIFESTYLE – she’s not wrong when she talks about how different that is than just going to therapy to learn isolated skills. Such a whole-person approach – I LOVE IT!
