Michael “Shawn” Ellis, Ph.D., LPC-A

Practicing Sine 2022

Shawn was born in Memphis, TN but was raised in Tupelo, MS where he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, along with being baptized, at age eight. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from New York Institute of Technology in 2006 and his Master of Psychology, with a specialization in Counseling Psychology in 2013 from Capella University, but would work in customer service, management, training, teaching, and inventory management for over twenty years. It was those job experiences that would allow Shawn to learn how to engage with many people and create relationships from many different walks of life, where it allowed him to counsel people and share the Gospel. These experiences and relationships led Shawn to finally begin his journey out of the corporate world and pursue the passion God put in his heart for counseling others.
In 2015, with the push from his wife, Shawn got accepted into a PhD in Psychology program,
with a specialization in Existential, Humanistic, and Transpersonal Psychology, that he
completed in 2022. After becoming unemployed from his retail job in late 2019, Shawn would
begin to seek out mental health and counseling opportunities to acquire his clinical hours to
become a License Professional Counselor in the state of Connecticut. He obtained the
opportunity to work as a care manager and then transitioned into a therapist that provides family
therapy to therapeutic foster children and their foster families for a non-profit agency. The
experiences working in the foster care system allowed him to understand and see the heart of
God and why He cares so much for the marginalized.

In completing his PhD and providing family therapy in the foster care system, Shawn has been
able to utilize his specialization in Existential-Humanistic and receive training in Family
Functional Therapy to helping therapeutic foster children and adolescences, along with their
foster families, find hope, stability, peace, acceptance, and love. Working in therapeutic foster
care also provided Shawn with the opportunity to gain experience in treating diverse mental
health issues such as ADHD, anxiety, depression and mood disorders, and personality disorders.
Shawn received his LPC-A in the spring of 2023 and hopes to be fully licensed in the fall of 2023. Shawn recognizes that the power of the Holy Spirit as the “Great Counselor” and the work of Jesus makes them the only ones who can provide peace and healing to the mental health
concerns present in these times. Shawn just wants to be a vessel to help create an atmosphere
where people can encounter the only one that can heal our mind, body, soul, and heart. Shawn
has been married since 2009 and currently lives with his wife and two sons in Southern
Connecticut.

Shawn is a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate. He is under the clinical supervision of Rob Hutter, LPC.