Shanna Porter, LICSW
Mental Health Clinical Supervisor
sporter@healthjusticerecoveryalliance.org
Shanna is a member of the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation. She is learning to re-indigenize her own life and healing practices. Her lived experience has led her into trauma-informed care and healing-centered engagement. She believes healing is a collective experience that happens in relationship with others—that's the power behind community and therapeutic relationships. It also requires professionals to walk the same healing journey as those they serve.
Social justice is a guiding value for Shanna. She is committed to advocating for change, access to resources, restoration and reconciliation. In order to achieve change and growth, she believes we must work together and recognize systemic challenges that people face. She supports creative and collaborative approaches to provide holistic care.
Shanna is a veteran of the Air Force and served while completing her Bachelor of Psychology at University of Maryland Global Campus. She was trained as a Sexual Assault Victim Advocate. She received a Master of Social Work degree from Eastern Washington University. She spent 10 years working in child welfare prior to transitioning into clinical social work.
As a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, Shanna practices from a strengths-based and person-centered perspective. She has training in Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, Experiential Therapy and Internal Family Systems. With interest in traditional healing practices, Shanna is learning to merge cultural traditions with modern therapies.
Shanna enjoys reading, spending time in the sun, gardening, art projects and trying new food. Being a neurodivergent person, she is always trying new activities. She is creating a Medicine Wheel at a local park and cultivating Sweetgrass to be planted throughout Spokane. Sweetgrass is known by many Indigenous people as Mother Earth's hair, as well as the medicine of relationship, community and healing.