Meet Sidra Shoaib, LPC
What you go through doesn’t just test you. It teaches you resilience.
Anxiety & Emotional Regulation Counselor
Helping people was never a backup plan for me. When I was in high school, the person I looked up to most was my own school counselor. I saw firsthand how much it matters to have one adult in the building who truly listens, and I never forgot how that felt. I carried that with me into college, and even when I started down a different road, it kept pulling me back.
I began my degree as a biology major. Semester after semester, the classes I couldn’t stop thinking about were my psychology electives, and in my final year I made the switch official. I earned my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and then my Master of Arts in School Counseling, both from Lewis University, and became a Licensed Professional Counselor. Looking back, the change of direction is one of the things I’m proudest of. It taught me something I now get to teach my clients: it is never too late to choose the path that actually fits you.
Today I work with children and teens ages 5 to 17, and I’m open to working with adults as well. Families come to me for anxiety, depression, school-related anxiety, emotional regulation, and social skills. Big feelings, school stress, meltdowns that seem to come from nowhere, the child who has stopped raising their hand, the teen who is snapping at everyone or shutting down completely. This is exactly the work I trained for, and honestly, the work I love.
What makes my background a little different is that I have worked inside schools, not just alongside them. I have been a school counselor, sat in the IEP and 504 meetings, walked the hallways, and seen where school pressure really comes from. Before that, I spent four years working one-on-one with children and teens with autism and intellectual disabilities. If your child learns differently, feels things intensely, or needs a little more patience to open up, you will not need to explain that world to me. I have lived in it. I also speak Urdu, and I warmly welcome families who feel more at home in it.
Tidbits about Sidra Shoaib
Master’s Degree
School Counseling at Lewis University
Clinical License
LPC – 178.022701
Recreational Activities
Favorite Workout: Strength training at the gym
Current Challenge: Running (proud beginner)
Favorite Cuisines to Cook: Traditional Pakistani and Mexican
Favorite Reads: Psychological thrillers (Jeneva Rose and Freida McFadden are current favs)
Currently Streaming: YOU, Dexter, and The Penguin
Languages
English
Urdu
Sidra Shoaib’s Experience
I have worked as a school counselor with a special education cooperative, supporting students with diverse learning, behavioral, and social-emotional needs. In that role, I developed and monitored IEP goals, provided individual and small-group counseling, stepped in with crisis support when a student’s day fell apart, and worked side by side with school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, teachers, and families. Before that, I completed 700 hours of school counseling training at Plainfield East High School, where I counseled students individually and in groups, helped freshmen turn around failing grades, and guided over 200 students through course selection, college applications, and scholarship materials.
For four years, I also worked as a Registered Behavior Technician, providing one-on-one care for children and teens with autism, implementing behavior plans, and training new staff. Those years taught me patience, consistency, and how to celebrate progress in whatever size it comes.
In our sessions together, I draw on a few approaches, and I’ll always explain them in plain English:
- CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy): we learn to notice the thoughts driving the big feelings, then practice answering those thoughts back.
- Solution-focused counseling: we start with what is already working and build from your strengths, instead of dwelling only on what is wrong.
- Client-centered counseling: you set the pace. I meet every client where they are, not where a textbook says they should be.
A session with me might look like traditional talk therapy, play therapy for younger children, or role-playing a tricky situation before it happens in real life: a hard conversation, a test, or walking into a new classroom for the first time.
Sidra Shoaib’s Ultimate Goal
I want every client to leave feeling empowered and optimistic about their future, believing their goals are achievable and the sky is the limit. Most of all, I never want a client to limit themselves because of what they are going through right now. What you go through doesn’t just test you. It teaches you resilience, and my job is to help you grow through it.