Available for Virtual and
In Person Sessions in Cerritos
Specialties:
Anxiety | Depression | Trauma
Hi there! My name is Luke Shackelford and I’m an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. I earned my master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. I also achieved a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Biola University in La Mirada, CA. In my experience practicing psychotherapy I have worked with teens, couples, & adults regarding phase of life problems, anxiety, depression, dissociation, trauma, and relationship issues. My areas of research & interest include neuroscience, interpersonal-neurobiology, and cognitive science, which help me understand the biological and psychological aspects of human behavior and relationships. I am also interested in spirituality, religion, and philosophy, and have found them to provide insight into existential and motivational aspects of human theory of mind and well-being. Before pursuing my degree in MFT, I worked in the tech industry for seven years in various roles. I then transitioned to information security, where I was responsible for developing and communicating policies and procedures to ensure compliance with standards such as ISO and HIPAA. I also learned a lot from working in a fast-paced and innovative environment that required constant learning and problem-solving. Another valuable experience I had was teaching in different countries. I spent one year teaching English to primary and secondary school students in Korea, and another year teaching various subjects to middle and high school students at a small international school in northeastern China. These experiences challenged me to be dynamic, flexible, adaptable, and adventurous. It also aligned with my background of growing up overseas and being comfortable in diverse and foreign contexts. I gained a lot of insight into human development, communication, and culture from teaching and interacting with students from different backgrounds and ages.
To be honest, during my years working in other fields I had no desire to become a therapist, I thought the field of psychology was troubling and I associated it with thought control like stage-hypnosis and marketing coercion. I imagined therapists were people who could read your every move and word, and get you to think or do things you would not choose to do on your own. How alarming! But I have always tended to be attuned to people's emotions, and over the years I developed a listening ear as well as a deeper desire to understand the human experience. While working in a variety of industries I always gravitated towards counseling conversations, meeting over meals or coffee to talk about life. After a while people started recommending I consider counseling as a career, and the feedback made sense to me. Eventually the internal calling that counseling would be my life's work became strong enough that I pivoted to attending graduate school at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. While in graduate school I did my internship with clients in the local community as well as providing services to students at a nearby city college, seeing a wide variety of clients and cases. The time during my internship was deeply satisfying and confirmed my decision to pursue therapy as a career. My approach to therapy is informed by my interests in philosophy of mind, ethics, spirituality and science. I find that art, literature and craft also facilitate helpful imagery, metaphor and framing for therapy work. I appreciate the approach of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and synthesize it with a depth psychological perspective including concepts of the unconscious, shadow and psyche as lenses to move towards greater understanding and well-being. I also appreciate the modalities of Existential, Logotherapy, and Coherence therapies for deep-work in charting the course of a meaningful and satisfying life. For couples I tend to use EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) to promote mutual security, compassion and understanding, ultimately bringing healing to the relationship, if possible. My goal is to continue to learn and grow as a therapist who can help individuals, couples, and families heal and grow through a holistic and integrative approach that draws insights from various traditions, promotes societal good, and broadly fosters character formation. I want to create a space where clients feel seen, heard, and understood and also safe to be and express themselves freely, not being ashamed of who they are or afraid to make mistakes as they take steps toward healing and growth. To inquire about setting up an appointment with me you can click here or call our office at 562-566-4257.
