Shirley Richards

Walking into a first session with Shirley Richards, clients often find something they didn’t expect: someone who already seems to be on their side. A Licensed Professional Counselor based in Birmingham, Alabama, Shirley listens for the shape of a person’s story before she says much at all — because she believes the answers people need are already inside them, waiting to be found. Her own experience of being guided through pain by a trusted counselor is what brought her to this work, and that history gives her a particular attentiveness to what it feels like to sit across from someone and risk being honest.

Shirley works with individuals, couples, and families navigating a wide range of struggles — from grief and self-esteem to marital conflict, divorce, aging parents, emotional abuse, and the quiet tension that builds when two people share a home but keep reaching for their phones instead of each other. She integrates insights from both mental health disciplines and spiritual wisdom, though she holds her own faith lightly in the room, creating space for each person to find wholeness on their own terms.

Shirley sees the therapeutic relationship itself as the foundation of change — one built on connection and trust rather than technique. She offers sessions online, meeting people wherever they are in life’s unfolding.