About Michael
Michael Southerland is a California-based licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) with 12 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and relationship or intimacy concerns. He focuses on listening closely and building on each person's strengths to find workable steps forward. Michael frames therapy as a partnership where the client’s goals guide the work.
He uses straightforward, practical techniques to help people reduce anxiety and improve communication. Sessions often include identifying unhelpful thinking patterns, trying small experiments between meetings, and telling the story of what brought someone to therapy in a clearer way.
Background and approach
These steps aim to make daily life feel more manageable. Michael also works with topics often tied to identity and life transitions, including issues common in LGBT communities, adoption and foster care history, attachment and abandonment concerns, and body image. He pays attention to how past experiences shape present reactions and relationships.
When intimacy or commitment questions come up, Michael helps people clarify their values and practice new conversations with partners or themselves. He also supports clients navigating addiction, eating concerns, codependency, and other overlapping struggles that affect mood and relationships. Throughout therapy he draws on client-centered listening alongside cognitive and narrative techniques to keep sessions focused and practical.
The goal is to leave each meeting with a clearer idea of what to try next and why it matters.
Approaches that fit online care and everyday life
Client-centered therapy is about listening first and following the client’s priorities. It helps when someone needs space to tell their story and decide what matters most. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing small behavioral changes to reduce anxiety and stress. It is useful when worry or negative thinking gets in the way of daily functioning.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Michael will talk with each person about goals, past efforts, and what feels manageable. Together they decide whether to focus on thinking patterns, life story, practical steps, or a mix of methods. This keeps sessions relevant and responsive to the client’s needs and preferences.
Online formats - video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging - make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives. Video lets people use visual cues and practice conversations. Phone sessions can be quicker and use less bandwidth. Live chat and texting work well for brief check-ins, day-to-day support, or when writing helps clarify feelings. These options increase flexibility and make regular progress more achievable for many people.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Body image
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Postpartum depression
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 12 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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