Shea Hesselbacher

Shea Hesselbacher, M.S., LPC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor at Freedom Behavioral Health Solutions in San Antonio, Texas. With more than seven years of experience across clinical counseling, higher education, and research, she has built a practice centered on treating OCD, PTSD, and neurodivergence in adults and adolescents, including LGBTQ+ and other marginalized populations.

Before moving into full-time clinical work, Shea spent years coordinating disability services in higher education, ensuring students had equal access to the resources and accommodations they needed to succeed. That background shaped how she approaches therapy today: with a strong commitment to accessibility, advocacy, and meeting clients where they are, particularly those whose minds work differently or whose identities have made it harder to find affirming care.

Shea has seen how often the struggles that bring someone into therapy circle back to a loss of control — intrusive thoughts that hijack the day, the weight of past trauma, or a mind that has never quite fit the mold it was expected to. Much of her work is about helping clients loosen that grip, not by avoiding what’s difficult, but by building real skills to face it and reclaiming a sense of agency over their own lives.

She draws on evidence-based approaches — including ERP, CBT, ACT, DBT skills, CPT, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and Sandtray Therapy — and tailors her approach to each client rather than applying a single method across the board. Her clinical work has included leading OCD-focused group therapy that combines ERP protocols with ACT and mindfulness practices, as well as conducting suicide risk assessments and safety planning for clients in crisis.

Outside of direct client care, Shea has coordinated referrals and campus-wide advocacy events, supported ADA/504 compliance for hundreds of students annually, and contributed to clinical research, including authoring abstracts and presentations for international medical conferences. She is a member of the Texas Counseling Association.

Whether you’re new to therapy or looking for a different kind of support, Shea’s approach is grounded and collaborative: understand what’s really going on, build the tools to work through it, and help you find steadier footing in your own life.