About Laverne
Laverne Santangelo greets people with a direct, practical style. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor who focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, addiction, mood concerns, and life changes. She speaks plainly and draws on ten years of professional counseling experience.
Her background includes long-term service in the Army National Guard and many years working in mental health settings. That work ranged from inpatient addiction care to community mental health clinics.
Background and approach
These roles shaped the way she helps people facing shame, grief, relationship strain, and substance use issues. In sessions she uses a person-centered approach to build treatment plans around each person's goals. She also uses cognitive behavioral techniques to identify unhelpful thoughts and habits.
Motivational interviewing and solution-focused methods help people find practical next steps and stay motivated. Laverne blends talk therapy with holistic tools she has trained in, such as life coaching and yoga-informed practices. She often helps people address caregiver stress, codependency, and family of origin problems alongside mood and anxiety symptoms.
Her work also includes multicultural concerns and issues commonly faced by veterans. She offers straightforward guidance for people coping with career stress, parenting strain, money worries, and questions about life purpose. Sessions aim to reduce overwhelm and build skills for daily living.
Laverne works with adults in Michigan and accepts clients internationally in English.
How her approaches translate to online care
Client-centered work means the session focuses on the person's goals and priorities. The therapist listens, reflects, and helps shape a plan that fits the client's life and values. This helps when someone wants practical, goal-driven support. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions. In online sessions this often includes identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and practicing new responses between meetings to reduce anxiety or depression. Motivational interviewing is a brief, conversational method that helps people clarify what matters to them and commit to change; it works well for addiction, ambivalence about treatment, and goal setting. Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will discuss options and adapt methods based on the client's needs, goals, and preferences. That collaboration helps decide whether to focus on skill-building, deeper exploration, or short-term problem solving. Online sessions offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier during busy days. Live chat and text messaging are useful for quick check-ins, shorter sessions, or writing out thoughts between appointments. These formats make it possible to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or travel schedules while keeping a steady course of care.Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
Also listed
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Michigan
- Languages
- English