About Michael
Michael Gusack is a licensed professional counselor who helps people facing chronic illness, anxiety, grief, depression, and major life changes. He brings a calm, straightforward style and practical skills to sessions. His aim is to help clients move past frustration and regain a sense of possibility.
With 41 years of experience, Michael blends cognitive behavioral methods with mindfulness and acceptance work. He uses clear, step-by-step tools so people can test what works between sessions.
Background and approach
He also draws on eye movement reprocessing and hypnotherapy when those methods fit a client's needs. Clients can expect a relaxed atmosphere where the focus is on real-world solutions. Conversations are geared toward building coping skills, managing symptoms, and clarifying values and goals.
Michael emphasizes actions people can try right away to reduce distress and improve daily functioning. He has written professionally and brings that background into how he teaches strategies and concepts. Michael also pays attention to aging and geriatric concerns, chronic pain and illness, cancer-related issues, and compassion fatigue.
He works with people dealing with relationship struggles, addictions, sleep problems, panic, phobias, and post-traumatic stress. Sessions are practical and collaborative, with an emphasis on finding what fits each person's life. Michael speaks English and practices in Colorado as an LPC and a licensed mental health counselor, drawing on decades of experience to support steady progress.
Online approaches and how they work together
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on values and small committed actions to help people live more meaningful lives despite difficult thoughts or symptoms. It is useful for anxiety, chronic illness adjustment, and life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) breaks problems into thinking and behavior patterns and teaches practical techniques to change those patterns; it can help with depression, panic, phobias, and sleep problems. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured approach used to process traumatic memories and reduce their emotional intensity when trauma is a core issue.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Michael will talk with each person about their goals and preferences and then suggest methods to try. That way the plan is collaborative and adjusts if something isn’t a good fit.
Online therapy offers flexible options: video calls for face-to-face interaction, phone sessions when bandwidth is limited, live chat for brief check-ins, and text-based messaging for ongoing support between sessions. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules, allow shorter touchpoint sessions when needed, and let clients choose what feels most manageable on any given day.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
Also listed
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Forgiveness
- Hearing impaired
- Life purpose
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 41 years
- Licensed
- Colorado, Florida
- Languages
- English