About Michael
Michael Flatley is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in Florida with 24 years of experience. He focuses on helping people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, and major life changes.
Background and approach
He works in a straightforward way and aims to make the first steps less overwhelming for someone seeking change. He approaches sessions believing the client knows their own story best.
He looks for strengths to build on and supports people as they try new ways of coping. Sessions are practical and paced to match each person's needs.
Michael uses several approaches to guide sessions, including client-centered work that follows the person's lead, cognitive behavioral strategies to address unhelpful thinking and behavior, and mindfulness practices to reduce reactivity. He also draws on motivational interviewing to help with ambivalence and narrative therapy to reframe difficult experiences.
People bring a wide range of concerns, such as relationship and family stress, parenting strain, grief, trauma, intimacy and sexual concerns, eating and sleeping problems, career stress, and compassion fatigue. He also helps with issues that overlap those areas, like communication problems, caregiver stress, divorce and separation, and feelings of isolation.
Sessions are offered through video calls, phone, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules. Michael aims to create a calm, respectful space where someone can talk through challenges and practice small changes that add up over time.
Approaches that translate to online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and following the person's lead to shape sessions. It helps when someone needs a respectful space to sort out feelings and priorities. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors link together and uses simple exercises to reduce anxious or depressive patterns. Mindfulness therapy teaches attention skills and brief practices to lower reactivity and improve sleep and stress management.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit best based on their needs, goals, and preferences. That collaborative process includes trying techniques, checking what helps, and adjusting as progress is made.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let people have a fuller conversation and read nonverbal cues. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or a quick check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging make it possible to get brief support between sessions or fit therapy into a busy day. These options help people keep therapy going even with tight schedules or travel demands.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 24 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English