Ms. Shawn Marie McGivern, LMHC

My session with Shawn was the most unprofessional, uninformative session I have ever had in my life. The fact that she had to apologize for what she was saying and try to "re-word" things is deeply troubling to me. She is wildly offensive, direct, and abrasive. Completely invalidating and does not listen. Not the kind of person to be giving therapeutic help to anybody. Please look elsewhere, trust me she is NOT the route you want to go. 0/10 recommend.

I approached Shawn as a young independent artist in totally good faith and with respect seeking some perspective on releasing some projects I’d finished over the pandemic and trying to understand how the local artistic community was responding to COVID. I was also looking for a counselor or somebody I had a decent rapport with, but I knew it was very possible that they wouldn’t be a good fit, and would have been totally happy to just accept that and seek a more qualified professional.

An initial phone consultation with Shawn seemed positive, but from the very start of our only paid session I felt that this person seemed determined to belittle and sneer at me. She seemed like a terrible listener, frequently interrupting me and asking questions that seemed pointed towards creating the most negative impression of me that she presumed. Something that especially stood out is that she felt comfortable deriding the craft and independent projects that I’ve devoted the last years of my life to as “play”, which is something I would never even dream of saying to another artist, especially not as a professional.

I would discourage anyone from bothering with Shawn. I came out of this paid session feeling only arbitrarily insulted and demeaned for honestly seeking help, which disturbed me enough that I felt it would be wrong not to share my impression. Abysmal.