Ashanti "Shan" Anderson, LAPC
Trauma Therapist & Poet
Pennsylvania
Shan Anderson, LAPC (he/him) is a clinically-supervised Licensed Associate Professional Counselor and author of the award-winning short poetry collection, Black Under. Identity, culture, spirituality, trauma, and nature are common themes in both his writing and wellness work.Shan currently works with a group private practice in Southeastern PA.
About
Those who want to know me, call me Shan (pronounced 'Shawn').
Professional licenses & publications are under my full name, Ashanti Anderson.
Shan Anderson, LAPC
(he/him/his)
Licensed Associate Professional Counselor (Pennsylvania)
License #: APC002753
Supervisor: Alexandra R Darion, LPC
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation…”
- Audre Lorde
The ongoing demands of survival can wear down our capacity to rest, recognize our needs, trust ourselves, or believe we deserve care. Therapy is a space to experiment with new ways of relating to yourself. Depending on what's useful and interesting to the client, our sessions may incorporate parts work, poetry therapies, nature-based practices, and various strengths-based approaches. We get to figure out what healing looks like in each moment, not some point in your life you feel like you never get to.Oppression, culture, disability, race, gender, sexuality, economic conditions, and environmental realities may be part of your story; therapy holds space for our lived experiences while still creating room for agency, choices, and needs. This inner work can also transform how we engage with other people and the wider world. I'd be glad to go on this journey with you, to discover what it means to truly care for yourself, and what happens when you do.
Licensure & Credentials
Licensed
Associate Professional Counselor (Pennsylvania)
License #: APC002753
EDUCATION
Master of Science
Community & Trauma Counseling
Thomas Jefferson University (2026)
I am licensed to practice mental health counseling in the state of Pennsylvania, United States because I am being clinically supervised per state requirements to earn independent licensure.Supervisor: Alexandra R Darion, LPC
Techniques
Mindfulness
Parts work
Motivational interviewing
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Gestalt therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Solutions-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
Somatic work
Ecotherapy
Narrative/Expressive arts (Poetry)
Focus Areas
Anxiety
Burnout
Chronic Stress
Chronic Illness
Collective trauma/grief
Depression
Early life trauma & (Complex) PTSD
Embodiment
Environmental trauma
Life Transitions
Self-Concept & Identity
Systemic trauma
Undesired Coping
Session Info
Pennsylvania
Virtual/telehealth
Individual Therapy
@ Alexandra R Darion LLC
50-minutes
Insurance: Most accepted
Self-Pay: Sliding scale
Rates, Fees, & Insurance
Rates vary depending on the billing organization. During our consultation, we will discuss current openings and financial details. You will be billed at the most affordable rate for which you qualify amongst current openings.
BLACK UNDER
Winner of the Spring 2020 Black River Chapbook Competition
Black Under layers outward perception with internal truth to offer an almost-telescopic examination of the redundancies—and incongruences—of marginalization and hypervisibility... In these pages, declarations are reclamations, and joy is not an aspiration but a birthright.
Praise for Black Under:
"Black Under defies strict categorization, save for the fact that it is altogether excellent."
—Marcus Wicker, author of Silencer and Maybe the Saddest Thing"Witness Anderson's haunting and marvelous skill."
—Kay Ulanday Barrett, cultural strategist and author of More Than Organs a 2021 Stonewall Honor Award Book"I’ve read these poems again and again, and every time I leave like—it’s we time.
—Sara Borjas, author of Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff
Author Bio:
Ashanti Anderson is a Black Queer Disabled writer, 2023 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and trauma (mental health) therapist. Shan is the author of Black Under, which won the Spring 2020 Black River Chapbook Competition at Black Lawrence Press. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Shan's poems have appeared in POETRY, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. Other published and produced works include research, essays, stage plays, screenplays, and tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). Shan currently lives in Philly.
Cover Art by Mariah Quintanilla
Selected Publications
Poetry
My Ancestors Who Learned to Read by Staring at the Bible, in Limp Wrist
sister, pick which battle to win when you choose to lose the war, in The Rumpus
Deep Nostalgia, in Container Magazine
Slave Ship Haibun; Acrostic for my Last Breaths, in Jet Fuel Review
Self-Portrait in Blackface; Self-Portrait as Overseer; Resignation, in Tupelo Quarterly
Self-Portrait as Kendrick Lamar, Laughing to the Bank, in Poetry
If, in World Literature Today
Ode to Black Skin, in Poetry (audio available)
Cleaning Up Men's Messes; Mamie Till on Carolyn Bryant's Confession, in Foothill Journal
Goddam, in Really System
Teach Me to Float, in Panoply
Essay
Deep Nostalgia, in Container Magazine
Academic Research
Eskine, K. E., Anderson, A.E., Sullivan, M., and Golob, E. J., (2018). Effects of music listening on creative cognition and semantic memory retrieval. Psychology of Music, 48(4), 513-528.Anderson, A. E. (2014). College Students’ Perceptions of Various Types of Domestic Violence. XULAneXUS: Xavier University of Louisiana’s Undergraduate Research Journal, 11(1), 43-52.
Stage & Screen
Study Room (2018)
Short Film | Credit: Writer
Winner of the 2018 Haley's Flight Page-to-Screen Short Film Competition.
A young woman races against the clock to finish her term paper on time while being harassed by annoying classmates.
Bleak Magic (2021)
One Act Play | Credit: Writer
When a conjure woman perfects a potion for "Black Power", she uncovers the nefarious desires of her clients.
Games
Visit itch.io (external site)
Contact
Email:
[email protected]Call or text:
PsychologyTodayCrisis/Emergency:
DIAL 988