Sometimes life is difficult. Life is especially difficult when we find ourselves dealing with situations, feelings, and moods that we don’t understand and don’t know how to handle, leaving us with profound doubt about ourselves and others. While we all have to deal with these challenges for ourselves, since we are human beings, we don’t have to do that by ourselves. In situations like these, the most responsible thing we do is to ask for help. I’m Michael, and I’m really glad you’ve taken this first step to seek help from a professional. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, with post-graduate training in various approaches to clinical therapy, including various trauma-focused therapies, cognitive and behavioral therapies, to fit a variety of preferences and challenges, figuring out how to move forward into living the life we really want to live. I have experience in helping people with challenges connected to moods, behaviors, relationships, parenting, and many other kinds of challenges that were holding them back from living the life they really want. My work experience includes child-focused family therapy, working with law enforcement, first responders, people adjusting to life after prison, people struggling with relationships, and people needing to process and resolve memories of traumatic experiences that continued to cause great pain and difficulty. My basic approach to therapy is called Reality Therapy, which helps to clarify what we really want and what we’re doing, to figure out whether what we’re doing is helping us get what we really want, and then to make adjustments to our thinking and acting that help get us what we really want. I also have been trained in a number of trauma-focused approaches, and primarily use Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for resolving trauma and other persistent cognitive problems, as well as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which helps with developing a balanced way of seeing reality, along with skills to act more effectively in response to the various situations in our lives. I regularly draw from all these approaches to meet the unique needs of each of my clients, and enjoy sharing my clients’ journeys of healing and growth. I welcome the opportunity to work with you, and if this is your first attempt at therapy, I say you’re in for more fun than you could imagine at this point. Let’s get started at building the life you really want!