Jerri Shankler

Addiction, shame, and silence are Jerri Shankler’s territory — and she has spent three decades helping people find a way through all three. Working from Pine Brook, New Jersey, the Licensed Clinical Social Worker draws on a background as a licensed alcohol and drug counselor and a family recovery coach to support individuals, couples, and families wrestling with substance use, trauma, anxiety, depression, and emotional abuse. She is as likely to work with someone unsure whether their drinking has become a problem as with a family member who simply needs to understand what their loved one is going through.

Jerri’s clinical approach is broad and deliberately personalized. She integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Hypnotherapy (trained through the New York Society for Ericksonian Psychotherapy and Hypnosis), Mindfulness, Harm Reduction, and Energy Psychology — because what moves one person forward may not move another. That same thinking applies to compulsive patterns that show up away from substances too: someone caught in relentless online gambling loops or hours of mindless scrolling often recognizes the same pull, the same relief that never quite lasts.

A U.S. Air Force veteran with an MSW from Yeshiva University, Jerri holds space for people who have written off therapy, dreaded groups, or carried stigma for years. All sessions are conducted virtually.