CO-HOST · INSIDE THE CONSULTING ROOM
Shelley Dennis, PhD, ABPP
Board Certified Clinical Psychologist
More than two decades in the consulting room.
Still fascinated by why we do what we do—
and by what becomes possible when we understand it.
Shelley Dennis is a board-certified clinical psychologist with more than 23 years of experience working with individuals, couples, and groups. She brings warmth, candor, creativity, and humor to the serious work of psychotherapy, along with an enduring curiosity about relationships and the ways they shape who we become.
A LIFE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
For Shelley, becoming a better therapist has always meant remaining a student of the work.
Shelley Dennis is a board-certified clinical psychologist with more than 23 years of experience in psychotherapy, consultation, and mentorship. Throughout her career, she has remained deeply engaged in the questions that make psychotherapy both challenging and endlessly compelling. Her board certification through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP)—the profession’s highest level of specialty credentialing—reflects advanced competence in clinical psychology and a longstanding commitment to excellence in the field.
Shelley earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and completed her predoctoral and postdoctoral training at Pine Rest Mental Health Services in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her career has taken her across medical, educational, legal, nonprofit, and private-practice settings, including leadership in an APA-accredited psychology internship program and teaching within Michigan State University’s medical residency program.
In 2010, Shelley founded her private practice and later helped establish a collaborative practice of doctoral-level psychologists. Throughout her career, consultation has remained central to how she practices and how she continues to grow as a therapist. She has participated in and facilitated consultation groups throughout her career, creating spaces where clinicians can wrestle with difficult cases, challenge assumptions, and learn from one another. She considers these conversations among the most rewarding—and enduring—parts of her professional life.
IN THE CONSULTING ROOM
Good therapy requires knowledge.
Great therapy also requires curiosity.
Shelley is drawn to the places in psychotherapy where there isn't an obvious answer—the moments when theory, technique, relationship, intuition, and the therapist's own humanity all enter the room.
Her approach is relational and integrative, informed by decades of work with individuals, couples, families, and groups. She values evidence based treatment and clinical rigor, but believes some of the most important work in psychotherapy begins when we're willing to stay curious about what we don't yet understand.
Creativity and humor are part of that process. Shelley believes serious clinical work doesn't always have to feel serious—and that sometimes a little irreverence, a surprising question, or the willingness to laugh at ourselves can open a door that technique alone cannot.
OUTSIDE THE CONSULTING ROOM
Curiosity has a way of following her home.
Shelley’s curiosity extends well beyond psychotherapy. She starts her mornings with hot black coffee and rarely seems to be without a project—crocheting, painting, or dreaming up whatever comes next. She loves historical fiction, yoga, Michigan State basketball, clever design, and considers a good spa day time very well spent.
Family remains at the center of life outside the consulting room. After more than three decades of marriage and raising two children into young adulthood, Shelley is happiest spending time with the people she loves—usually with her beloved dog, Penny, somewhere nearby.
She loves to travel, and her favorite city is Budapest, where eating lángos is less a culinary choice than a requirement. Shelley has a particular weakness for strawberry Twizzlers and firmly believes there is almost never a good reason to turn down a Werther’s Original.
