How It Began
For over twenty-five years I have sat across from people in the hardest moments of their lives. Children who don't have words for what they are feeling. Adults who have spent so long being who everyone needed them to be that they have lost the thread back to themselves. System-impacted young people whose behavior everyone wanted to fix, when what they needed was someone willing to understand it.
The same truth has shown up in every single room: we cannot give what we never learned to receive. Most of us were taught to take up less space before we ever had the chance to find out how much space we actually needed.
Be You began as a children's book. But the more I read it back, the more I understood it was also a map for the adult work. These aren't just words for children. They are the words most of us needed to hear long before the world started editing us.
Healing isn't linear. It's messy and cyclical. Some days we move forward with confidence. Other days we struggle just to show up, to stay present, to trust that even in the stillness, we are becoming who we are. Growth can't be rushed.
My hope is that Be You meets you wherever you are, whether you are beginning, rebuilding, or remembering, and that it gives you space to breathe, reflect, and feel seen.
About Cindy Jill Shortt
Cindy Jill Shortt is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and trauma specialist with over twenty-five years of experience working with youth, families, and system-impacted communities. She specializes in curriculum development and has designed and implemented trauma-informed programs across schools, community organizations, and justice-involved settings, with a focus on emotional intelligence, resilience, and healthy relationship development.
She is the curriculum architect and training partner for Collaboration Over Contradiction, an organization dedicated to transforming how systems see and serve young people. Her work there moves practitioners from reactive responses to relationship-centered approaches that foster safety, connection, and accountability.
She has also developed a peer support specialist training and certification program, reflecting her commitment to building sustainable, community-based models that expand access to care and empower individuals with lived experience to support others.
Earlier in her career, Cindy served as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Riverside, where she taught educational therapy, strengthening her ability to bridge clinical theory with real-world application.
Her clinical approach is engaging, relational, and grounded, translating complex concepts like trauma, behavior, and emotional regulation into practical strategies that people can immediately apply in their work and in their lives.
She lives in California and is the mother of two grown sons she adores. She is also an artist whose creative practice is as much a part of her work as her clinical training.
Services
Therapy Services
Individual therapy for adults seeking support with trauma, anxiety, depression, or feeling stuck. Together, we make sense of where you’ve been, reconnect with the body’s innate capacity to heal, and gently shift patterns that no longer serve you, so you can reclaim your story and move toward a life aligned with who you truly are.
Parenting Support
Support for parents who want to understand themselves more deeply, respond with intention, and create safer emotional spaces for their children. Together, we focus on understanding emotions, nervous system patterns, and the ways our own experiences shape how we parent so change feels possible and sustainable.
Guest Speaking
Thoughtful, engaging talks for schools, organizations, and community groups seeking meaningful conversations around emotional health, authenticity, and trauma. Presentations blend real stories with practical insight, leaving audiences feeling seen, grounded, and motivated to reflect.
Connect with Cindy
Feel free to reach out for any inquiries!
