About Michael
Michael Peterson, LCSW, helps people manage stress, anxiety, addiction concerns, grief, and ADHD. He keeps sessions straightforward and focused so parents can quickly see how therapy might fit into a busy life. He uses plain talk and active listening to make space for whatever is on a client's mind.
Sessions aim to identify small, doable changes that reduce daily overwhelm. Michael encourages realistic goals and steady progress rather than quick fixes.
Background and approach
With five years as a licensed clinical social worker in Illinois, he draws on earlier roles as a case worker and crisis clinician. Those experiences shaped his practical approach to problem solving. He leans on a mix of strategies to meet real-life needs, not a single method for every person.
Michael commonly uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people change unhelpful patterns and live with difficult feelings. He also uses client-centered and mindfulness-based techniques to slow racing thoughts and build skills that carry over into daily routines. Sessions are conversational and action-oriented.
Michael helps people break issues into manageable steps, practice new habits, and notice progress. He supports people facing work stress, relationship strain, mood shifts, or the challenges of ADHD and life transitions.
How his approaches translate to online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people accept difficult thoughts and commit to values-based actions. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and ongoing struggles such as ADHD when rigid attempts to control feelings make things harder. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) identifies unhelpful thinking patterns and teaches practical techniques to change behavior and mood. CBT often helps with stress, worry, and low mood by teaching skills clients can practice between sessions.Finding the best approach is part of the work together. Michael will discuss goals and preferences in early sessions and adjust methods to what fits each person. The process is collaborative so clients can try strategies and keep what helps most for their life and routines.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation and screen-sharing for worksheets. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is limited or for shorter check-ins. Live chat and text messaging let clients send updates or brief notes between appointments and can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy day.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 5 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
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