About Michelle
Michelle Garibaldi helps people manage stress, anxiety, relationship strain, grief, and addiction. She also supports people dealing with trauma, parenting challenges, sleep trouble, low self-esteem, career transitions, and life changes.
Background and approach
Michelle is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and she brings 23 years of clinical experience to her work. Her style is warm and collaborative.
She listens first, then helps clients set clear, realistic goals. Sessions focus on practical steps clients can try between meetings.
Michelle draws on a range of approaches to match what a person needs in the moment. In therapy she uses client-centered methods to follow what matters most to the person.
She also incorporates cognitive behavioral strategies to address unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. Mindfulness and motivational interviewing are used to strengthen coping and motivation for change.
Michelle has worked across many concerns that affect daily life, including attachment and abandonment wounds, blended family stress, communication problems, divorce and separation, and caregiving or end-of-life issues. She also addresses issues like compassion fatigue and first responder stress when they show up in a person’s life.
Sessions are offered in English from California. Michelle aims to help people build tools they can use after therapy ends.
She encourages realistic steps, honest conversation, and steady progress toward the goals a person sets.
How therapeutic approaches work online
Client-Centered Therapy puts the person’s experience first and focuses on understanding and empathy. Online this means the therapist follows what matters most in conversation and helps the client name goals and priorities that feel right to them.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches practical ways to change thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going. In remote sessions this often includes setting small experiments, tracking patterns between appointments, and reviewing what worked during the week.
Mindfulness Therapy helps people notice the present moment and reduce reactivity. Online sessions can introduce short exercises the person can practice daily to calm nerves and improve sleep or focus.
Finding the right approach is collaborative. The therapist will talk with each person about their goals, needs, and preferences, and then try methods that fit. Plans are adjusted as people learn what helps them most.
Online therapy offers flexibility in how sessions happen. Video calls let people work face-to-face when visual cues are useful. Phone sessions take less bandwidth and can be easier when a camera isn’t wanted. Live chat or text-based messaging supports quick check-ins, brief coaching, or ongoing reflection between longer sessions. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent around work, caregiving, or other commitments.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English