M. Shawn Palau, LCSW

Clinical Director and Therapist

Shawn has been working in the mental health field since 1991. He has experience in private mental health, child and adolescent acute care, and the public mental health systems. His experience also includes community based residential group homes, independent living programs, halfway houses, chemical dependency groups, and critical incident stress debriefing. Shawn received his undergraduate degree from Weber State and his Master’s Degree at the University of Hawaii where he worked with the Native Hawaiian population at the Queen Liliu’okalani Children’s Center. He has wide experience with minority patients and families. Shawn has extensive experience in sex-specific therapy for adolescents and chemical dependency. Primarily Shawn utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy but incorporates other modalities to create his unique approach in treatment. He is also trained in ASAM and SASSI criteria for determining levels of care for substance abuse. Shawn works with teens and older. Shawn is married with 2 adult sons. In his spare time, Shawn enjoys all sports-football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, and golf.

Contact Shawn at shawn@alohabehavioral.com