Michael Perkins
Practical therapy focused on goals and skills
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed in
- Missouri
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Michael
Michael Perkins uses a practical, client-centered approach to therapy. He is a licensed clinical social worker with 20 years of clinical experience in Missouri. He keeps sessions straightforward and focused on what matters most to each person.
Conversations are aimed at clear goals and useful skills rather than long theory talks. He draws heavily on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which looks at how thoughts affect feelings and actions. He also uses mindfulness to help people notice the moment without judgment.
Background and approach
Those methods are paired with strengths-based work to build on what is already going well. Michael has a long background in teaching social work and human services, which informs how he explains ideas and suggests exercises. He sometimes offers homework between sessions, such as short activities or reading, to practice new habits.
That approach helps skills stick in day-to-day life. Many of his focus areas include relationship strain, family and parenting concerns, stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, and issues around self-esteem. He also works with topics like career challenges, compassion fatigue, ADHD, and bipolar-related concerns.
He will explore what clients want to change and what is already working for them. Sessions are intended to be collaborative. Michael views each person as the expert in their own life and helps identify practical steps forward.
He often asks what small next moves feel possible.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online work
Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and tailoring sessions to each person. In practice this means the therapist follows your lead, asks about what matters most, and shapes goals around your priorities. This approach helps when you need practical support and a responsive, respectful space to talk.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions. Online CBT often includes short skill-building exercises and homework to try between sessions. It tends to help with anxiety, stress, mood shifts, and problems that respond to concrete practice.
Mindfulness Therapy encourages gentle awareness of the present moment without judgment. It can provide tools for managing strong emotions and reducing reactivity. Short guided practices are easy to use during or after an online session.
Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will help you decide which methods fit your needs, goals, and preferences. That choice is collaborative and can change as therapy progresses.
Online sessions offer flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life, practice skills between meetings, and return to sessions from home. Licensed professionals can adapt exercises and homework to whatever medium you prefer, keeping the focus on practical progress rather than location.
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.
Mindfulness Therapy
Attention training: noticing thoughts and physical feelings as they arrive without being carried off by them. Much of it is practice you do yourself, so guidance over video or audio works much as it would in person.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
- Parenting issues
Also works with
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Missouri
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Michael
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point