Shenelle Jackson
- MEET YOUR THERAPIST
LCSW | LCISW | LCSW-C
Licensed Clinical Social Worker · Founder of ALS
DC · Maryland · Virginia
"I am not an average therapist. We don’t keep it cute over here . Real talks with no chasers. Let your hair out and take your mask off!”
~ 20
YEARS IN THE FIELD
5+
SECTORS— victim services, child & family, community MH, CSEC, nonprofit
3
LICENSES — DC · MARYLAND · VIRGINIA
6
SPECIALTIES — financial · forensic · trauma · grief & loss · FMLA · Relationship
Born and raised
in the heart of DC.
WHERE I AM FROM
I am a true native of the DMV. Born in DC, raised here, shaped by this city in every way that matters. I know what it smells like in June when Unifest is popping. I know what it sounds like when the gogo is playing. I've been to Georgia Avenue Day, the Caribbean Fest, watched athletes hoop in Barry Farms, and stood in the crowd when history was being made.
I went to public school in this city. I walked these neighborhoods. I lived this community — not read about it, not studied it from a distance. I am from here. And that is not incidental to the work I do. It is the foundation of it.
Life ain't been
no crystal stairs.
This is the part most therapists leave out of their bio. Not me. You deserve to know who you're sitting across from.
For as long as I can remember, I was popping in and out of the foster care system. My mother was a woman who was suffering — dual mental health disorders and alcoholism were her battle, and as a child, that battle became mine too. My father never got to know I existed. He left this world before we ever had the chance to connect.
And then — as if life hadn't already handed me enough — a white male psychologist sat across from me, gave me a diagnosis of ADD, and declared that I was incapable of finishing school, holding down employment, or managing healthy relationships.
That man did not see me. He saw a statistic. He saw what he expected to see. And what he expected was not enough.
But I had something he didn't account for — a good therapist, protective caretakers who saw more in me than he did, and enough stubbornness to prove every single word of that diagnosis wrong.
I got adopted at 12. I graduated — three times. I am licensed. And I am managing some very healthy relationships. I beat the odds. Not because they weren't real, but because I refused to let someone else's limited vision become my ceiling.
That experience — sitting across from a clinician who was supposed to help me and instead caused harm — is exactly why I built ALS. I know firsthand that racism in the mental health field is real. It is documented. And it is dangerous to our community.
I did not want to put the trust of my people in the hands of someone who sees them the way that psychologist saw me. I want to break the narrative that therapy is something to fear — and show what it looks like when it's done by the right person, with the right intention, and the right love for the people in the room.
This practice is built in love. And it is built in intention. For the community that cared for me.
WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT
I'm not here to
check a box.
Straight talk. No chaser.
I welcome real conversations. You will not sit across from me performing wellness while I nod and take notes. We are going to talk — honestly, directly, and without the clinical distance that makes people feel like a case file instead of a human being.
More than solution-focused.
I don't just want to fix the problem in front of us. I want you to understand yourself — and the world around you. That deeper understanding is what makes change last beyond the sessions.
Take off the survival mask.
I want my clients to feel comfortable enough to let their hair out. To put down the armor. To stop performing strength and start actually building it. My space is designed to make that feel possible — not performative.
Intentional with every moment.
I am deliberate about the time and energy in this space. Every session has a purpose. You will never feel like we're just going through the motions or checking off a list of what happened this week.
I bring more than therapy.
Most therapists treat what happened to you. I also understand the systems, institutions, and environments that shaped it. With training in financial, forensic, and sports social work — I meet clients where their whole life intersects with their mental health. Not just in the therapy room.
That's not a warning — that's the goal. My job is to work myself out of a job with you. To get you to the place where you've built enough, healed enough, and grown enough that you don't need me the way you did when you walked in. That's what success looks like here.
I ain't your friend. I'm your therapist. And we are here to work.
I'm like Mary Poppins —
when you need me, I'll be there.
Once you don't, I'll be gone.
Ready to
work?
If you've read this far and something in you said yes — trust that. Reach out and let's figure out where we start together.