About Michael
Michael Perkins is a licensed clinical social worker with twenty years of counseling experience in Missouri. He focuses on practical help for relationship strain, parenting challenges, anxiety, stress, trauma, and life transitions. Michael speaks plainly and aims to make therapy feel doable from the first session.
He uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. He also draws on client-centered ideas that put the person's goals first, and mindfulness practices to calm the body and focus attention.
Background and approach
Sessions often include simple exercises to try between meetings. Michael values building on what is already working in a person’s life. He asks about strengths and everyday successes, then helps people use those strengths to handle problems.
He may suggest short activities, reflections, or reading to reinforce progress outside sessions. Over two decades he has combined clinical practice with teaching social work and human services. That background informs a straightforward style that explains approaches in plain language.
He will tailor methods to each person’s needs rather than follow a rigid plan. People come for help with relationship conflict, parenting stress, career questions, attention-related concerns, and emotional struggles like guilt, shame, or anger. Michael aims to create a clear path forward and practical steps that fit normal life demands.
Online approaches that teach skills and calm the mind
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and understanding a person's goals. The therapist follows the person's lead and supports choices that matter to them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people notice thoughts and habits that fuel stress or low mood, then practices small changes to shift those patterns. Mindfulness Therapy trains attention to reduce reactivity and improve emotional regulation through simple breathing and awareness exercises.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with the person about their goals, preferences, and life demands. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress unfolds, keeping the process collaborative and flexible.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can fit a work break or require less bandwidth. Live chat and text are useful for brief check-ins, quick tools, or when typing feels easier than speaking. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and different lifestyles.
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