Shelby Friery , LPC

Shelby Friery, LPC, is a licensed professional counselor and counselor educator based in Idaho who combines clinical work with academic training to support people at different stages of life. With a primary background in school counseling, she has particular experience working with children and adolescents from pre-K through age 18 while also drawing on experience across the lifespan. As a professor she conducts research and helps train future counselors, bringing evidence-informed perspectives to her therapeutic work.

Shelby approaches counseling as a collaborative process, partnering with clients to identify and reach the goals that matter most to them. She works with patience, support, understanding, compassion, and a sense of humor to create practical strategies for growth. LPC stands for Licensed Professional Counselor, reflecting her professional training and state licensure to provide clinical care.

Her areas of focus include stress and anxiety, trauma and abuse, grief, self-esteem, and coping with life changes. She also attends to communication problems, forgiveness, guilt and shame, and cultivating self-love. Shelby aims to help each person discover the tools and perspective needed to move forward with clarity and resilience.

Evidence-Based Approaches and Online Care

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps clients clarify their values and learn practical ways to accept difficult thoughts and feelings while taking committed steps toward what matters. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns and developing concrete skills to change them, which often helps with anxiety, low mood, and self-esteem concerns. Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, strengths-based approach that helps people resolve ambivalence and strengthen their own motivation for change, particularly useful when facing difficult behavioral shifts.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process. Shelby works collaboratively with each person to determine which methods best match their needs, goals, and preferences, and adapts the plan as progress is made.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility - sessions by video call or phone and options for live chat or text-based messaging make it easier to fit support into a busy life. These formats allow clients to work with licensed professionals from different locations, schedule sessions more conveniently, and continue momentum between meetings through messaging when appropriate.