Michelle Coffey
Supportive LCSW focused on practical change
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed in
- Florida, New York
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Michelle
Michelle Coffey is a licensed clinical social worker with seven years of practice. She uses a person-centered style that shapes how she meets people. Her approach is warm and pragmatic.
She aims to partner with clients to set clear, doable goals and to work toward them step by step. She prefers straightforward conversations instead of jargon. Sessions focus on understanding what is happening now and finding small changes that make daily life easier.
Background and approach
Michelle draws on evidence-based techniques to help with anxiety, depression, addiction, grief, and stress-related issues. She also addresses concerns such as body image, caregiver stress, attention challenges, and recovering from trauma. Michelle blends client-centered support with structured tools from cognitive behavioral therapy.
She uses skills from dialectical behavior therapy when emotions run high, and she incorporates mindfulness exercises to help with focus and calm. Motivational interviewing is used for people working on behavior change and recovery. Michelle holds a Licensed Clinical Social Worker credential - LCSW - and is licensed in New York and Florida.
She works with English-speaking clients in Florida and provides sessions by video, phone, chat, or messaging. International clients are not currently served. Her style is collaborative and paced to the person in the room.
New clients start by sharing current concerns and practical goals, then she and the client choose skills and steps to try between sessions. This is a hands-on, goal-focused way to make progress over time.
How her approaches translate to online therapy
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and building a respectful partnership. It helps people feel heard and supported while they set personal goals and decide what changes matter most to them.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, breaks problems into thoughts, feelings, and actions. It teaches practical skills to shift unhelpful thinking and behaviors, which can help with anxiety, depression, and difficult routines.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, offers concrete skills for managing strong emotions and improving communication. It is useful when someone struggles with intense reactions or relationship stress.
Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about needs, goals, and preferences, then try tools and adjust as progress is made. That collaborative planning helps keep sessions focused and relevant.
Online therapy lets people access these methods from home through video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. That flexibility can help clients fit appointments into busy lives, maintain momentum between sessions, and use strategies in real time. Licensed professionals can teach skills, offer coaching between meetings, and adapt exercises to the format that works best for each person.
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.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Concrete skills for riding out strong emotion, tolerating distress, and handling relationships without things escalating. The skills are practised in daily life, so between-session support by message or phone fits naturally.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- 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
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Florida, New York
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Michelle
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point