About Michelle
Michelle Rutherford is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) who focuses on helping people manage life when it feels overwhelming. She offers a calm, direct, and compassionate presence to guide conversations about stress, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, grief, and other struggles. Michelle writes in plain language and meets people where they are.
She works from an eclectic set of evidence-based techniques, adapting what she uses to each person’s needs. Sessions are practical and down-to-earth, with space to talk through difficult feelings and plan small steps forward.
Background and approach
Michelle pays attention to patterns that keep problems going and helps clients test new ways of coping. People often come for help with sleep and eating disruptions, anger, career stress, ADHD, addictions, or trauma and abuse. Michelle also supports those facing changes such as bereavement, bipolar mood swings, intimacy concerns, or compassion fatigue.
She aims to make conversations feel useful rather than overwhelming. With four years of counseling experience, Michelle blends straightforward feedback with gentle encouragement. She encourages people to try tools in between sessions and to notice what helps.
The focus is on realistic, manageable change over time. Michelle practices from Louisiana and conducts sessions in English. She uses approaches suited to the issue at hand and prioritizes a collaborative plan that fits each person’s life and goals.
Evidence-Based Approaches and Online Care
Michelle uses a mix of evidence-based therapeutic techniques and selects what fits each person. One common approach focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns and then testing new ways of responding; this helps with anxiety, depression, and stress. Another approach emphasizes practical skills for managing emotions, sleep, and daily routines, which is useful for ADHD, anger, and coping with life changes. Each technique is explained in simple terms and tied to clear steps clients can try between sessions.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will listen to goals and concerns, try methods suited to those needs, and adjust over time. Clients are encouraged to give feedback about what helps so plans evolve together rather than being fixed from the start.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Michelle provides video calls for face-to-face conversation, phone sessions when video isn’t needed, live chat for shorter check-ins, and text-based messaging for ongoing support between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caregiving, or travel, allow shorter check-ins when schedules are tight, and let people choose whether to be on camera or not.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Sleeping disorders
- Trauma and abuse
- Experience
- 4 years
- Licensed
- Louisiana
- Languages
- English