Repair
Renewal
Real Connection
“Like the ocean, real relationships aren’t safe - they are alive. The work is learning to stay grounded within movement.”
~Andrea Shafir
The Experience Behind the Work
For over 25 years, Andrea Shafir has been a licensed practitioner in California, specializing in women's health and fertility. From the beginning, couples have been at the center of her work. Navigating fertility challenges is one of the most emotionally demanding experiences a partnership can face, and it was in that crucible that Andrea developed her deep understanding of how couples under stress either find each other and strengthen, or lose each other.
Andrea also holds a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology earned through an in-person program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. Her internships and externships prepared her to work in diverse clinical settings, specializing in couples, dating, parenting and family repair.
In recent years, she has formalized and expanded that relational expertise, training directly with Terry Real and the faculty of the Relational Life Institute.
In 2025, Andrea earned her RLT certification in Couple Counseling through the Institute — earning skills in their rigorous, evidence-informed approach that gives partners concrete tools for showing up for one another, and for themselves.
At Interlace Counseling International, relationships are living tapestries: ever-shifting, revealing, and capable of being rewoven. This is a space for exploration, repair, and renewal. Here, the work is alive- not clinical, not detached, but fully human.
Andrea has witnessed how shame unravels us into loneliness and disconnection, while entitlement blinds us to the pain we inflict on others and blocks intimacy. Over time, her focus shifted to relationships themselves, where individual growth becomes the lead thread in a larger tapestry of relational synergy and co-creation.
Why International?
Interlace Counseling International reflects the reality of Andrea’s practice. Over the years, her client community has spread—across states, across borders, across time zones. When the world shifted during the pandemic, many of her long-term clients moved away, and Andrea moved with them, finding ways to continue serving people she knew deeply and who trusted her work.
Today Andrea works with individuals and couples wherever they are—offering sessions that meet people in their actual lives, not just their geography.
Andrea’s Inner Process Informing The Work
Andrea’s path to relational work began with her own awakening, as she learned how anxiety, perfectionism, and people-pleasing shaped how she showed up in love.
Her counseling psychology master’s program at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) emphasized clinicians doing their own inner work, learning to notice activation, contain it, and self-regulate in real time. That capacity to stay grounded while emotion moves through is something she now models for her clients.
Andrea doesn't subscribe to being a "blank screen." She uses herself in service of the work, building relationships, sharing from her life, and modeling the "same-as" stance that invites genuine connection and vulnerability. In the room, she demonstrates authenticity, accountability, and relational courage by inviting feedback and making strategic self-disclosures that build trust and show clients what a healthy connection looks like.
Andrea leads sessions actively, balancing warmth with direction, always taking the side of the relationship.
In her words, “The ‘patient’ is the dance between you.” No one is right or wrong, and no one is to blame. Andrea helps clients understand what has shaped their behaviors, and how to cultivate new ways of interacting that honor and sustain the relationship going forward.
Her early work in women's health and fertility revealed a profound truth: our bodies flourish when held by our own wise and steady presence, from which we can reach out to create trustworthy connections. As well, she's witnessed how shame unravels us into loneliness and disconnection, while entitlement blinds us to the pain we inflict on others and blocks intimacy. Over time, her focus shifted to relationships themselves, where individual growth becomes the lead thread in a larger tapestry of relational synergy and co-creation.
The Person Behind Interlace
You will find Andrea most alive when she is playing in the ocean, spending time with family and friends, working with clients, making music, and dancing. Curiosity and joy shape the way she moves through the world, and that same spirit is present in her work.
Her passion for learning, the healing arts, and promoting holistic wellbeing is integral to her identity. When she travels, she immerses herself in the language of the area she is visiting. For her, language serves as a gateway to understanding the culture, allowing her to connect with curiosity and respect.
This is also how she approaches her work with you. Andrea wants to understand the landscape of your inner world and the patterns that shape your relationships. She listens for where you’ve been, what matters most to you, and meets you with steady presence, skill, and care.
Her background reflects a lifetime of service, study, and hands-on experience. Andrea has attended births in both homes and hospitals, provided care in the nation’s first integrative medicine public health facility, established a Complementary Medicine department in a community hospital, co-led a research study on acupuncture and quality of life for cancer patients, taught Medical Ethics and Patient Relationship courses to emerging clinicians and provided mental health care to underserved communities in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. She is also a trained EMT first responder, Reiki Master, and ABORM fellowship candidate.
Andrea holds a BA in Biology from Oberlin College, a master’s-equivalent degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her work is also deeply shaped by advanced training in couple therapy with Terry Real and the stellar educators at the Relational Life Institute (RLI).
Andrea is a Certified Couple Counselor through the rigorous Relational Life Therapy training program at RLI.
Clinical and Professional Affiliations
