About Michael
Michael Garrison is a licensed clinical social worker based in Michigan. He holds a Licensed Master Social Worker credential and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker credential and brings about ten years of clinical experience. He has worked in schools and community mental health settings and meets people with a straightforward, supportive approach.
He focuses on practical, goal-oriented work. Sessions often include talking through difficult events, learning coping skills, and trying small changes between meetings.
Background and approach
He emphasizes a strong working relationship and offers steady support and validation during sessions. Michael has long experience with trauma, addiction, mood and personality concerns. He also helps people facing grief, relationship strain, anger, stress, anxiety, and issues around intimacy or body image.
He understands the impact of complex situations like co-morbidity and disasters and brings that perspective into planning treatment. His background includes school social work and community mental health practice. He has worked with children, adults, and couples in prior roles and has used parent management techniques when supporting caregivers.
His listed credentials are MI LMSW 6801097735 and OR LCSW L15000. In sessions he encourages reflection, discussion, and practice of new skills. He aims to meet people where they are and focus on the concrete goals that matter to daily life.
The work centers on building insight and useful habits for better well-being.
How therapy approaches translate to online care
CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect. Online CBT often focuses on practical tools like thought records and behavior experiments to reduce anxiety, depression, and panic symptoms. DBT, or Dialectical Behavior Therapy, teaches emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills. It can help people manage strong emotions, impulsivity, and relationship conflicts through skills practice and coaching during sessions. EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, helps people process traumatic memories by pairing focused recall with guided bilateral stimulation; it is used for post-traumatic stress and other trauma-related reactions.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and what has helped or not helped before. Together they pick or combine methods so the plan matches the person's needs and pace.
Online sessions offer flexibility in how care is delivered. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and exercises, phone sessions work well when bandwidth or camera use is limited, live chat can be used for shorter check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing coaching and reminders between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to keep practice going between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Impulsivity
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Men's issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sleeping disorders
- Stress, Anxiety
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Michigan, Oregon
- Languages
- English