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Health at Every Size® Healthcare Provider Listing

Shannon Patterson, Ph.D.

(she/her)

Licensed Psychologist

Shannon Patterson PhD LLC
Virtual,
Wisconsin,
United States

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Make an Appointment: 

Special Instructions: Please click on the "Contact" link on the upper right hand side of my webpage title with any questions that you may have about my treatment approaches, policies and scheduling availability. At this time, I am only offering appointments during the evenings and early mornings (prior to working hours).
Sliding Scale Available
Specialties & Areas of Focus:
- Eating Disorders
- Adjustment to chronic illness/medical diagnoses
- Depression
- Anxiety
Modalities & Theoretical Lenses:
- Feminist Psychotherapy
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Trauma-Informed CBT-E
Age Groups Served:
- Teens (13-18 years old)
- Adults (18 years old and up)
- Older Adults (65+ years old)
Additional Populations Served & Allied Groups:
- LGBTQIA+
- BIPOC
Languages Services Offered In:
- English

My Philosophy of Care

As a Health at Every Size® aligned provider, I partner with my clients to identify personal strengths and values that promotes psychological well-being. One of my priorities as a psychologist is to help clients to name and externalize oppressive systems that we may unintentionally internalize as humans embedded in a weight-normative society. I believe that it is important to acknowledge and address the impact of power, privilege, and the social determinants (influencers) of health on individual mental health and behavior. To that end, I strive to advocate for the best interests of my clients outside of the therapy room by providing education to other mental health providers and medical providers. My approach to therapy addresses important cultural factors that impact my clients and tends to larger-scale systems that impact my clients' lives. With humor and compassion, I strive to help my clients approach their concerns with curiosity, while also attending to the cultural and systemic factors that are impacting their life. My approach to therapy is to help people develop strategies "in the here and now" to cope with concerns and improve quality of life. I find that the most fulfilling and important part of my work as a psychologist is to build supportive and authentic relationships with my clients. My favorite part of being a Health at Every Size® Provider work is witnessing that moment when a client realizes that their body was never the problem.

About Me & My Practice

I am a weight inclusive, Health at Every Size® (HAES) aligned psychologist who is passionate about supporting individuals with eating, body image, and health concerns. Specifically, I specialize in treating people who struggle with disordered eating, and health concerns in late adolescence (16+)/early adulthood, midlife, and older adulthood. Like many mental health professionals, I was trained in weight-normative health care systems. While treating individuals during my post-doctoral fellowship, I began to see that the ways in which we treat weight within the medical system was doing more harm than good. I have had the privilege of treating fat and superfat+ folks within medical systems for 8 years, and have unfortunately witnessed the ways in which medical systems oppress and deny services on the basis of weight. My responsibility and mission as a Health at Every Size® aligned provider has been to educate medical and mental health professionals on the ways in which our current system is harming many. To quote the wise words of Hilary Kinavey and Carmen Cool, “It is not enough to help people to heal from the effects of oppression and then send them right back into oppressive systems. We need to resist systems that decide whose bodies are worthy and valuable and whose are not.”

Accessibility Considerations

I currently offer all virtual psychotherapy services and am not affiliated with any medical system. My services are accessible to any individual located in Wisconsin with a stable WiFi connection.

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