Michael Hurd
Practical, goal-focused therapy for family concerns
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 36 years
- Licensed in
- South Carolina, Florida, Maryland
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Michael
Michael Hurd is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who uses practical, goal-focused therapy to help people navigate stress and family challenges. He centers sessions on immediate problems and workable steps. Michael treats conversations as a partnership and looks for strengths clients can build on.
His style is straightforward and action-oriented, aimed at moving forward rather than dwelling on labels. Michael draws on 36 years of clinical experience across regions and settings.
Background and approach
He emphasizes finding specific changes clients can make now. He will point out patterns and habits that get in the way, then practice alternatives together. This approach often includes short-term tools for anxiety, coping with life changes, and managing addictive behaviors.
He also offers care for relationship and family concerns, grief, self-esteem, trauma, and issues tied to health and chronic conditions. Michael has written books and many articles about practical mental health steps and public wellness topics. Those interests shape a pragmatic, coaching-infused style in sessions.
Sessions focus on clear goals and measurable progress. Michael uses techniques from client-centered work, cognitive behavioral approaches, solution-focused strategies, and parts-based ideas when helpful. He tends to keep childhood history briefly relevant, using it only when it helps resolve current problems.
People meet him for direct feedback, concrete homework, and steady planning. He aims to help clients try new ways of coping, track results, and adjust plans as needed. The emphasis stays on what can realistically improve day-to-day life.
How Michael’s Approaches Work Online
Client-Centered Therapy puts the client’s perspective first and helps build confidence by listening and reflecting what matters to the person. This approach is useful when someone needs a steady, nonjudgmental space to sort out choices and feelings.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors. It gives clear tools for anxiety, mood shifts, sleep problems, and coping with stress by practicing different thinking and action patterns.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Michael collaborates with each person to choose or blend methods that match goals and preferences. That means trying techniques, reviewing what helps, and changing course when needed.
Online formats support this kind of active, practical therapy. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and skill practice. Phone sessions offer the same talk-based work when video is not possible. Live chat and text-based messaging make it easier to check in, get short coaching, or reinforce homework between sessions. Together, these options increase flexibility and let people fit therapy into busy family routines and changing schedules.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Solution-Focused Therapy
Rather than examining the problem at length, this looks at what is already working and builds on it. Sessions tend to be practical and forward-looking, with small achievable steps, which translates readily to shorter online conversations.
Frequently asked questions
What issues does Michael focus on?
What is his therapeutic style?
How much experience does he have?
What credentials and location are listed?
In which languages can sessions be held?
What session formats are available?
How is cost handled for sessions?
How do I begin working with him?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 36 years
- Licensed
- South Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, Virginia
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Michael
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point