About me
Hello,
COUPLE COUNSELING SPECIALIST
I go by Dr. Bill and I am a licensed therapist (license number Psychologist 5077, LMFT 12373), in practice for 44 years. I am primarily a couples therapist (75% of my work ), but I also have many years experience working with anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and other addictive and compulsive behaviors. I ran a drug and alcohol treatment program for 13 years, and I have been in charge of an outpatient eating disorders program. I ran an anxiety treatment program with individual and group therapy for over 25 years. I am also a university professor, organizational consultant, wellness and well-being coach and author. My wife Robin (also a therapist) and I are the co-authors of Mindful Choices for Well-Being and Finding the Right Partner (pending publication).
I look forward to working with you!
Specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Intimacy-related issues
- Eating disorders
LGBT , Family conflicts , Trauma and abuse , Grief , Sleeping disorders , Parenting issues , Anger management , Self esteem , Career difficulties , Bipolar disorder , Depression , Coping with life changes , Coaching , Compassion fatigue , Read more...
Clinical approaches:
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Attachment-Based Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT), Gottman Method, Imago Relationship Therapy, Mindfulness Therapy
Services offered
Messaging
Live Chat
Phone
Video
Licensing
CA LMFT 12373
CA Psychologist 5077
Reviews
These quotes represent just a few of the many positive reviews that we have received for Dr. William Shearer. We don’t pay anyone to provide their review and they are all made voluntarily. Some people's experience receiving therapy with BetterHelp might be different.
Great advise great lister so helpful
Dr. William Shearer help me with my anxiety related to difficulty sleeping. He helped focus on the now and not on the many what ifs. I was trying to problem solve instead of sleep. He is a very good listener. He gave me a number of workbooks related to anxiety. Again thank you Bill.
Dr. Shearer's guidance and counselling was exactly what I needed to get over the many things that were bothering me. My state was an intertwined mess of professional and personal dissatisfaction and fear and hopelessness.
Dr. Shearer asked the right questions, and expertly guided me to the exact things (ACT, mindful choices for well-being, handling panic attacks, healthy vs. unhealthy coping strategies and active constructive responding) that I need to work on to become a much-improved, calmer version of myself and more importantly regain my sense of lost confidence, satisfaction and self-esteem.
You'll notice that these are fundamental things. They cut across both the personal and professional. If you ever find yourself thinking that all you need is perhaps a professional coach, do introspect and figure out if there are similarities in your personal life too. If yes, go straight to Dr. Shearer. A professional coach is probably your second port of call, if at all necessary.
Dr. Shearer will be my go-to should I ever find myself in a funk again, although I'm confident, given his inputs over the last several months, that this situation won't arise. However, he shall forever remain my sounding board for when I realize that I can be a significantly better version of myself, irrespective of my ongoing mental condition.
My relationship with Dr. Shearer has only been a few times; however I
have had a pleasant experience thus far. He is receptive to my needs in therapy
and does not hesitate to give feedback.
Working with Dr. Bill helped my eating disorders and anxiety. He listens and give genuine answers to my questions. I highly recommend him if you need help with anxiety and eating disorders.
Dr. Bill is an excellent therapist. I made progress with his help from the very first session. I feel he gives me the tools I need to help myself each day and is also there to support me when I get a little stuck.
Dr. Bill was an excellent listener and he responded very quickly to my journal entries. focusing on anxiety, stress, and boundary-setting. He often included worksheets and recommended books to help with areas of improvement. He also made notes every time we had a video call on what I expressed and gave suggestions to help. I would highly recommend Dr. Bill!
Dr Shearer is an outstanding, highly experienced therapist who takes his time in trying to understand you as a person above all else.
In the short time I have been working with Dr. Bill he has already given me ways in which to better myself. He's a wealth of knowledge and experience and has been helping me in my journey to become a better me and a better partner to the people in my life. The tools and research he shares are extremely helpful and will allow me to constantly learn and develop myself. I look forward to all that he can teach me.
He’s wonderful! Has sooo many good resources & things I can work on as HW. I am so grateful for his expertise & experience!
It's my first time reaching out for a therapy session and I'm glad the match therapist for me is Dr. Shearer. He's very helpful and I'm comfortable sharing with him what I think or feel. He listens and help me process what I feel. He also shares articles and readings to help me understand what I'm going through. He doesn't rush you with opening up. I'm grateful he's my first therapist and will recommend him to my friends and colleagues.
Dr Shearer has been amazing for me. These past few months I have been having really rough patches in life, but having Dr Shearer in my corner has worked wonders and is helping me everyday to become better and help myself get to my ultimate goal.
I worked with Dr. Shearer through a difficult separation and divorce and he was the perfect counselor to guide me through these hard times. When I signed up for Better Help, I was suffering from overwhelming anger, anxiety and depression to the point that I could hardly function. I quit my job, I stopped most of my hobbies, and I stopped paying attention to my health. I'm a father of four, married for thirteen years and I did everything for my wife and kids. When my marriage collapsed, my life as I knew it crashed with it. I was on a spiral down, my anxiety felt physically. I felt like a dead man walking. I was consumed daily with hurt, anger, mistrust, and fear. I knew I needed professional help to turn my life around. I signed up for Better Help with trepidation. I had been to counseling for years, but I wasn't sure how valuable online counseling could be. Dr. Shearer or "Dr. Bill" as I called him, changed my mind from our first interaction. He was kind, empathetic, and I always left our sessions feeling enlightened, relaxed, and confident. Dr. Bill was a mentor who always had the right answer. From the onset, he armed me with tools to improve my well-being and change the way my mind was wired. Some of those tools included diaphragmatic breathing, and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). He also referred me to relevant books to supplement my learning, and he referred me to the working draft of his own book. His book was incredible and acted as a perfect supplement our sessions. I remember reading chapters from midnight until dawn a couple night. It was that good. Dr. Bill also provided worksheets to gauge my mental and emotional state, and to assess my performance as a husband, and later co-parent. In a short amount of time, I turned things around with Dr. Bill's help. That anger, anxiety, and cloud of sadness were mostly lifted away. As Dr. Bill coached me, I know I'll still deal with difficult emotions, but I now have valuable tools to accept them and to redirect my energy into something positive. As an added benefit, Dr. Bill served as a divorce mediator for many years, so he was able to provide sage advice on how to approach my negotiation and how to manage my emotions all while keeping the peace with my soon-to-be-ex. Today is a sad day for me because I'm leaving Dr. Bill, only because money is tight (given all of my legal dealings). Dr. Bill, I sincerely thank you for saving me, transforming me, and for giving me tools which I will continue to use to develop into a stronger man. I have so much gratitude for what you did and I could never thank you enough.
Best therapist !
I really enjoyed working with Dr. Shearer, he understood the real problem right in the first live session and we worked on long term solutions
Dr. Shearer supported me for a short time but it was an excellent experience. Would highly recommend him and his flexible approach.
Dr Shearer is exactly what one could ever expect from a clinician.
He has the credentials and he lives up to them. He is the one you are looking for...
Dr. Shearer is great and very professional. He has a lot of experience and shared many great material to help me with my issues. I really appreciate his approach and kindness. He also checked up on my frequently when I didn't have much to say or posted anything. I truly appreciate how much he cares! I would definitely sign up with him again.
Dr. Bill is so respectful, so supportive, so understanding of all religions, beliefs, and ethnicity. I highly recommend others to have Dr.Bill as their counselor
Dr. Shearer (Dr. Bill) has been wonderful to work with.
His expertise are in love and relationships be it with others or yourself, and he has taught me so much about self-compassion and how to exercise my boundaries in a healthy way.
I feel respected by him, and his books and the focused chapters will forever be in my reading repertoire. Thanks again Dr. Bill!
I've really enjoyed our time together. I appreciate all the different points of view and the worksheets are always exactly what I'm either looking for or need. Dr. Shearer has been a great support.
Dr Bill was my first therapist ever and was my "Yoda" from time to time as well. I was very lucky to have found him. He was such great help. His clinical approaches (ACT, Gottman Method, Mindfulness, CBT in my case) worked really well with me. He is warm, gentle, open, and has a good sense of humor, responds well to messages and gave me useful reading materials. Because he was never judgmental or critical, I could trust him, be honest and open with him. I looked forward to our video session every week and if money wasn't the issue I would have continued counseling with him. And when I come back, I will definitely choose Dr Bill as my therapist again.
Dr Shearer has been a wonderful resource as I work through issues in my relationship with my wife. He helped me very quickly to understand that my marriage is still important to me and that my own anxiety and self doubt are holding me back with being the best husband and connecting with my wife.
He has provided great reading and assessment materials for how I can focus on staying in the moment during important conversations with my wife in order to really listen and hear what her needs are and what she is asking.
He has been extremely supportive and constantly encouraging me to practice the methods I am learning to help face my own issues and how to best meet my wife’s emotional needs.
Dr. Shearer is very easy to talk to about these very personal issues and has helped me tremendously to fell better about myself and how to connect better with my wife.
He also has been great with staying engaged with me (and with keeping me engaged) in this therapy process by messaging me several times a week unprompted, responding very quickly to my messages, and encouraging me to schedule
Video sessions.
I would recommend Dr. Shearer as a therapist to friends and family.
Dr. Shearer has been great so far. I have had two sessions through video and conversations through texting and he listens and gives me real proactive advice on a lot.
Dr. Shearer has helped so much even after only a couple of sessions. He knows what my goals are and is helping me get there step by step.
Dr. Shearer has been a huge help so far, and he has introduced new techniques that I have found to be manageable and they have helped me to manage my anxiety and stress. He actively listens and takes note of what you are struggling with. He has a wide range of knowledge and explains how his advice and suggestions have helped prior clients. I am really glad to be matched with such a great therapist.