Sharon (Shonnie) Brown, LMFT

Sharon (Shonnie) Brown grew up in northern California and has spent much of her adult life learning to adapt across different cultures, a journey that informs her approach to therapy. Life transitions - including divorce and long-standing shyness - shaped her path into psychotherapy and fostered a perspective that change, while difficult, can be part of growth.

She earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in counseling psychology from JFK University in Orinda, California. With 30 years of experience as an LMFT - a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist - she has worked primarily with individuals and couples and has led groups focused on separation and divorce, infidelity, co-parenting education, and social anxiety.

Her clinical interests include toxic workplace stress, major life transitions, separation and divorce, infidelity, strained relationships and broken friendships, self-esteem concerns, challenges of young adulthood, co-parenting, and issues related to aging. In addition to clinical practice, she is a professional writer who uses writing as a therapeutic tool to support emotional healing.

Sharon’s style is candid and wholehearted. She integrates cognitive and solution-focused strategies with family systems and psychodynamic perspectives, and has recently incorporated elements of Pete Walker’s roadmap on childhood trauma and complex PTSD into her work. She identifies core patterns such as difficulty self-soothing and tolerating painful emotions, along with struggles around self-compassion, self-protection, and self-love.

Her therapeutic toolkit includes goal setting, practical coping skills, mindfulness exercises, and optional writing exercises, all within a strong therapeutic relationship. Sharon emphasizes gradual progress, daily practices of optimism and gratitude, and the value of taking one step at a time when facing life’s fragility and change.