Shawna Pankonin, LPC

Shawna Pankonin is a licensed professional counselor who helps people dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, relationship struggles, trauma, and parenting challenges. She works with concerns such as grief, self-esteem, career questions, bipolar disorder, and LGBT-related issues. Shawna also supports those navigating adoption and foster care, blended family challenges, caregiver stress, and other family-related difficulties.

She brings 14 years of experience in a range of settings. That includes work in homes, residential care, schools, youth court systems across the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, outpatient services, and a Child Advocacy Center. Those roles exposed her to many different clinical situations and taught her to adapt to each person’s needs.

Shawna uses a person-centered and flexible approach. She starts from where someone is, listens first, and helps them identify practical steps toward their goals. She often uses cognitive behavioral techniques, mindfulness practices, narrative ideas, and solution-focused methods to address problems.

Her sessions aim to be warm and straightforward. She encourages clients to take an active role in change and sets clear goals together. Shawna emphasizes realistic progress - change usually takes time and effort, and she commits to walking alongside people who are ready to do the work.

Many who meet with her want to feel heard and understood. Shawna focuses on validating each person’s experience while helping them build skills to manage symptoms, improve communication, and regain a sense of control.

Online approaches that focus on goals and daily coping

Shawna commonly uses Client-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Mindfulness Therapy in her work. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and accepting a person’s experience so they can make their own choices and feel understood. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions interact and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful patterns. Mindfulness Therapy uses simple attention and breathing practices to help reduce stress and bring more calm to difficult moments.

Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the process. Shawna works together with each person to choose methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. She checks in and adjusts the plan as progress is made or priorities change.

The biography does not list specific online formats, so confirm available session options before booking. Online work can still make therapy easier to fit into busy lives. It may reduce travel time, allow shorter check-ins between commitments, and help maintain continuity when schedules or locations change. Licensed professionals can use these approaches to help with symptom management, communication skills, stress reduction, and step-by-step problem solving while keeping sessions focused on practical next steps.