Michael Valdes
Practical guidance for relationship and life challenges
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed in
- Tennessee
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Michael
Michael Valdes is a licensed clinical social worker who offers straightforward, practical help for people facing relationship strain, addiction struggles, mood concerns, and life changes. He speaks plainly and focuses on steps that families and individuals can use right away. Michael brings 17 years of experience in Tennessee to each session and aims to make therapy useful and understandable.
He combines approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to match what a person needs in the moment.
Background and approach
Sessions often include clear skill practice, attention to values and goals, and strategies to reduce strong emotions. Michael also draws on client-centered and dialectical methods when tension or communication problems are central. Common issues he addresses include stress, anxiety, depression, grief, self-esteem, and intimacy-related problems.
He also works with concerns around addiction, ADHD, trauma and abuse, and relationship difficulties. Additional focuses include attachment and abandonment worries, communication problems, and challenges after separation. Michael explains ideas in everyday language and helps people test small changes between sessions.
He uses coaching-style guidance when helpful and supports people in building routines that match their values. His goal is to make progress feel manageable rather than overwhelming. Sessions are offered in English and occur through video, phone, chat, or messaging when appropriate.
Michael describes his role as a steady guide who helps people find clearer choices and move toward the life they want.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on helping people notice what matters to them and take small actions toward those values even when emotions are hard. This approach can be useful for depression, anxiety, and navigating life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT, looks at unhelpful thoughts and patterns and teaches practical skills to change behaviors and feelings. It is often used for stress, anxiety, and mood concerns. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and creating a supportive space where people can find their own solutions; it helps when someone needs clearer thinking and steady support.Deciding which approach to use is a team process. The therapist works collaboratively to match methods to a person’s goals and comfort level, and will adjust the plan as progress unfolds. Clients and the therapist check in together about what is helping and what needs to change.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make care easier to fit into busy lives. These options provide scheduling flexibility and let people use the format that feels most comfortable. The online setting still allows for skills practice, values work, and focused conversation to help people move forward.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
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.
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does Michael address?
What is his therapeutic style like?
How long has he been practicing?
What are his credentials and where is he located?
Which languages are supported and are international clients accepted?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed
- Tennessee
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Michael
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point