Dr. Shelby Kittinger (She/her)

My Approach to Helping

As a relational psychodynamic therapist, Dr. Shelby’s approach to therapy focuses on transformational change through the context of relationship. She engages her patients with a balance of acknowledging pain and suffering while also holding compassion and gently moving alongside each patient towards their own unique healing. Dr. Shelby takes this depth-oriented approach to provide her patients with long lasting change. In the context of treatment, Dr. Shelby prioritizes the authenticity of the moment, attending to and unlocking conscious and unconscious patterns of how we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the world around us. She is particularly interested in helping people work through past wounds and shining a light on all the “parts” of a patient to help cultivate a whole cohesive sense of self. She addresses meeting wants and needs, personal values, and increasing agency, compassion, and radical acceptance.

More About the People I Treat

For Relationship Therapy: Dr. Shelby is trained in and utilizes Emotion Focused Therapy which focuses on entering into the depths of dysfunctional patterns, chronic communication issues, and difficulty regulating emotion within the relationship that undermine the security of the relationship as a whole. In treatment, Dr. Shelby focuses on treating the relationship as the patient versus getting stuck in one versus another. She centers valuing understanding versus agreeing, identifying patterns, and increasing compassion to help strengthen the relationships core and build toward transformational long-lasting change. Dr. Shelby is trained and experienced in working with LGBTQIA+ folks and non-heteronormative identities or relationships. Wherever you are at, her hope is to co-create a space open to deep and thoughtful reflection established gradually with trust and a sense of being safe enough to take steps toward healing, transformation, and relational fulfillment.