Truth. Alignment.
Becoming.
"Above all, I care about your story — and how it connects to your soul. We'll explore it together, piece by piece, until the threads make sense again."
Kirk Sheppard is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with Supervisory Endorsement (LPCC-S) based in Mason, Ohio. He's been sitting with people in some of the hardest moments of their lives since 1998.
"If you need someone direct, I'm not afraid of truth."
Kirk doesn't just validate — he engages honestly, even when that's harder.
"If you need someone steady, I'm grounded."
Over 25 years across every corner of mental health care. He's seen a lot. He rolls with whatever you bring.
"If you need someone safe — I've been told I'm that too."
Warm, relational, and judgment-free. The room is safe. So is the silence.
How I think about this work.
From my earliest days as a counselor, I operated from a relational place — the instinct that healing comes more from the quality of connection between two people than from any particular intervention or technique. For a while, honestly, that felt a little rebellious. Like I was doing something informal in a field that valued structure and method.
Then I found Jean Baker Miller's work and felt something settle. Relational-Cultural Theory gave me the theoretical foundation to stand on — the idea that growth happens in connection, that relationships are not just the backdrop to therapy but the actual mechanism of change.
What also resonated was RCT's grounding in social justice and power. I think about trauma simply: any time we lose a feeling of power or control in a way that makes us feel unsafe, that's traumatic. It doesn't have to be a single dramatic event — it can be slow, relational, and invisible to everyone but the person living it.
So when people ask about my theoretical orientation, RCT isn't a framework I apply. It's the closest description of how I naturally think — and 25 years in, it still feels true.
The relationship is the foundation. The tools are what we build with.
That said — I'm not just sitting here nodding warmly. Depending on what you need, I draw from a range of evidence-based approaches:
Narrative Therapy to help you examine and rewrite the stories you've been living inside — the ones you inherited, internalized, or just outgrown.
CBT and DBT for practical, structured work on thought patterns, emotional regulation, and the habits that keep you stuck.
Motivational Interviewing when ambivalence is the thing standing between you and change.
I'm not dogmatic about any of it. What works for you is what we'll use.
25 years in the trenches.
I started in this field in 1998 — not as a therapist, but as the first office manager of a small nonprofit counseling center called One Hope. I've been close to this work ever since.
After earning two Master's degrees from Cincinnati Bible Seminary, I spent years as a school-based counselor, then built my first private practice in 2008. I've worked in acute psychiatric care at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, led clinical teams at Talbert House — one of Hamilton County's largest behavioral health agencies — and taught at the university level. In 2021, I returned to private practice. It's where I've always belonged.
I hold the Supervisory Endorsement on my counseling license, which means I'm also qualified to supervise other counselors working toward licensure.
View full credentials & CV →First office manager of a nonprofit church-based counseling center.
School-based and office-based counselor serving rural southeastern Indiana.
Full-time private practice serving children, adolescents, and adults.
Clinical Service Provider → Clinical Supervisor → Associate Director → Lead Training Specialist.
Clinical counselor in the Psychiatric Intake Response Center, providing emergency psychiatric evaluations.
Back to his first love. Seeing clients virtually and in person.
More than a therapist.
I believe it matters that you know something about who you're working with. Healing happens in connection — and connection requires a real human on both sides of the room.
So here's some of what I am outside of the office: a writer, a playwright, a theatre critic, a professional wrestling personality and backstage official, a theme park enthusiast, a travel agent, and an occasional standup comedian. I've been inducted into the NWF Hall of Fame. I came out at 46. I turned 50 recently — and I'm still figuring out what that means.
None of this will come up in your session unless you ask. But I think it's worth knowing that the person sitting across from you has lived a full, complicated, interesting life — and has done a fair amount of his own work to get here.
Novelist, playwright, blogger, and theatre critic. Second novel Rope Burn coming June 2026.
20 years as a professional wrestling personality and backstage official. NWF Hall of Fame inductee.
Playwright and 15-year critic covering Cincinnati theatre through Off Book Cincinnati.
Author of The Magic of It All and owner of a boutique travel agency specializing in mental-health-informed, self-care-focused trips.
Former adjunct faculty at two universities. Authored original courses and 30+ professional trainings.
Photographer based in the Cincinnati/Dayton area. Finds stillness behind the lens that complements the work in the room.
Books by Kirk Sheppard
Kirk writes across genres — therapeutic nonfiction, devotional writing, literary fiction, and a Disney guidebook. All available on Amazon.
A literary novel set in the indie wrestling world.
A not-so-perfect, broadly spiritual (or not) guide to aligning your life.
Falling off furniture and 52 other lessons about humility.
How to visit Disney World without coming home divorced, traumatized, or exhausted.
A novel.
Questioning God, life, and everything in between.
Awards & honors
Presented by the CCU Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota. Nominated and presented by student Sarah Lucas, Cincinnati Christian University Masters in Counseling Program.
Talbert House, Cincinnati OH.
Excellence in Social Work and Clinical Counseling, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Let's find out who you're still becoming.
If what you've read here resonates — reach out. Kirk reviews every inquiry personally.