Sharon Bain, LCSW

Sharon Bain, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, specializes in work with professional women, especially professional women who are also mothers with high aspirations in work, parenting, and relationships.

Our female clientele often seek her out to work individually on depression or anxiety resulting from family stress and relationship burdens. A portion of her practice is also dedicated to parent coaching where she is especially known for working with parents of preschoolers.

Bain earned her Masters in Social Work from the University of Chicago and her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. After several years providing intensive outpatient treatment for women with depression, she re-specialized in the area of children and families while working at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Bain has completed Level III of Gottman training and has had exposure to AASECT, Imago, Adlerian, PAIRS and other models of treatment for relationship health.

For 13 years, Bain served part time as the Parent Resource Specialist and Consultant at Early Childhood Development Center of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College, where she provided counseling to parents and training and consultation to teachers regarding preschool behavior and developmental concerns. She continues in this role on a contractual/consulting basis.

She is a married mother of three sons, ages 17 to 22. Sharon enjoys singing classical contemporary choral music.

 

Get to know Sharon Bain, LCSW

With whom do you work well?

I thoroughly enjoy the fact that most of my clients are now women seeking individual adult long-term therapy for help with relationship problems, depression, and/or anxiety resulting from family and work stress. I also still enjoy having a portion of my practice dedicated to parent coaching.

How do clients change in counseling? What is the mechanism of change? The motivation for change?

Change unfolds differently depending on a number of factors, primary among these is the matter of the client’s focused concern. Parenting coaching for mothers of preschoolers, for example, is typically fairly straightforward. Change is the result of concrete behavioral recommendations and skills development based in Adlerian approaches to family guidance.

Many professional women I work with are managing high expectations and demands in work, love, and family relationships. Their counseling often focuses on improved awareness of values and personal priorities and how these affect emotions and stress. Very often a counseling session will serve as a place to articulate and explore their personal experiences which results in valuable insights. Collaborative dialogue about these insights leads to ideas for leveraging meaningful change in their daily life. Ultimately, every client uses counseling differently to best suit them.

What values do you want to promote at Family Psychology of South Bend and in the community?

I believe we have a unique and important mission to serve clients who are seeking insight-oriented therapy while also helping them within the context of their family systems. I hope to support cooperative, intimate relationships, compassionate family leadership, and meaningful work.

Why did you choose to work at Family Psychology of South Bend?

The clinic is very much a product of two mutually supportive counseling careers, mine and my husband’s. Family Psychology of South Bend LLC is a result of decades of developing our counseling work as a strengths-based, teachable approach to mental and relationship health. Growing the practice allows us to help more clients as well as mentor students and promising young professionals.