Shani Ben-Dov

Shani Ben-Dov is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) practicing in Connecticut with three years of clinical experience. She works with people who feel stuck after life changes, overwhelmed by stress or anxiety, or weighed down by depression and trauma. Her focus includes relationship difficulties, compassion fatigue, and caregiving strain.

Shani offers straightforward, collaborative sessions that aim to slow repeating patterns and make them easier to change. In session she looks at thoughts, emotions, and relationship dynamics to understand what keeps problems in place. She emphasizes practical skills that fit everyday life instead of abstract theory.

Her background includes work in crisis response, behavioral health, and substance use and co-occurring disorders. She has experience supporting people exposed to high-stress environments and has worked alongside first responders. This experience informs how she approaches burnout and the emotional strain of caregiving.

Shani draws from approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and trauma-informed care. She uses these methods to teach emotion regulation, communication strategies, and ways to shift unhelpful thinking.

Sessions are conversational and direct, with an emphasis on curiosity rather than judgment. People do not need to know exactly what to change before starting. Often noticing that something is no longer working is a clear first step toward trying different responses.

She offers services in English and Hebrew. International clients are not accepted. Costs vary by location and sessions are provided through a subscription model that can be canceled at any time. To begin, select the See online therapy options button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule a first session.

Therapeutic approaches and working online

Shani commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice and shift unhelpful thinking patterns. CBT focuses on identifying thoughts that fuel anxiety or depression and testing those thoughts with practical experiments and skill practice.

She also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy techniques to teach emotion regulation and distress tolerance. DBT skills are useful when strong emotions or reactivity make day-to-day functioning harder, and they offer simple tools for calming and grounding.

Finding the right method is part of the work. Shani takes a collaborative approach and will help determine which techniques fit a person's goals, needs, and preferences. She discusses options and adjusts the plan as progress and priorities change.

If you are considering online sessions, confirm current session options before booking since formats are not specified here. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule, support shorter check-ins when needed, and reduce travel time. It also lets people use strategies and skills between sessions in their usual settings, which can help practice new responses in real life.