Her Story
About Sheila
Sheila Schaefer (“Shay”) is a Licensed Professional Counselor with extensive experience in the mental health field across clinical, community-based, and educational settings. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Kaplan University (2013) with an emphasis on special needs children and an Associate of Arts in Education from the University of South Carolina. She later completed a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in May 2023. She has also served as a clinical mental health counselor in training through Liberty University, where she continues to develop advanced clinical competencies.
Shay has over a decade of experience supporting individuals across the lifespan in a variety of therapeutic roles. Her professional background includes work as a Transitional Living Therapist with The Dream Works and as a Psychosocial Group Leader/Youth Specialist with the Elizabeth Layton Center. In these roles, she has provided individualized and group-based support for clients experiencing depression, anxiety, PTSD, trauma, personality disorders, autism, and identity-related challenges. Her work has included treatment planning, progress monitoring, skills development, and solution-focused interventions within both individual and group therapy settings.
In her professional approach, Shay is interested in holistic healing and has a particular focus on the mind–gut connection, with aspirations to integrate nutritional awareness into therapeutic practice. She is also an accomplished cook and baker and has participated in culinary competitions. Shay brings a strong service-oriented philosophy to her work, emphasizing compassion and faith-driven purpose in supporting clients through life challenges. A United States Navy veteran, she has also been noted for her pioneering role as one of the first women to serve on a combatant vessel. Outside of her professional life, she enjoys restoring and showing her 1969 Chevy Chevelle, reading, and knitting.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sheila
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my faith and the divine timing of God's plan for my life. When I lost my job for doing the right thing, I was sitting in my car praying, asking God what He wanted me to do. At that exact moment, Liberty University called, and the Holy Spirit literally told me 'this is your answer, answer it.' Everything that followed was so smooth - I know it was Him guiding me. Even though I had tried to get my master's before and it didn't work out, this time the timing was perfect. Being able to do everything online meant I could take my daughter-in-law to chemo and radiation every day after her brain tumor diagnosis, support my two kids in high school with their activities, and still maintain A's and B's. I also found my way back to God after being lost for a long time, and I worked with a great psychologist who inspired me to do what I'm doing now. I've been through so much trauma in my life - losing my father at 13, abuse from my stepmother, being beaten and raped - but I've done the hard work of therapy and reconnected with my faith. Now I can take all of that and help other people who are going through their own struggles. My grandmother and mother influenced me with Christianity from a very young age, and that foundation has carried me through everything.
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