About Michelle
Michelle Wendel is a licensed marriage and family therapist who helps adults manage stress, anxiety, career tension, parenting pressures, and life transitions. She focuses on practical steps clients can use right away.
Background and approach
Her tone is calm and direct, with an emphasis on steady progress rather than quick fixes. Michelle works with people facing issues like low self-esteem, relationship communication problems, codependency, and the emotional fallout of divorce or separation.
She also supports clients through pregnancy and childbirth concerns, midlife changes including menopause, and challenges tied to aging and retirement. Workplace stress and questions about life purpose are part of her regular caseload.
Her approach draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Client-Centered Therapy. Sessions include noticing unhelpful thinking, trying small behavioral experiments, and clarifying personal values to guide choices.
Michelle adapts those methods to match each person’s pace and preferences. Clients can expect straightforward conversations and concrete homework when it helps.
Michelle emphasizes building trust so people feel comfortable sharing hard things and testing new ways of coping. She frames therapy as a collaboration focused on realistic goals and steady change.
Michelle practices in California and has ten years of experience as an LMFT, licensed marriage and family therapist. She offers sessions for English-speaking clients and accepts international clients who can work in English.
Her practice aims to blend practical tools with a compassionate, nonjudgmental stance.
Approaches you can use online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. It is useful for anxiety, stress, and questions about life purpose. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions and uses small experiments to test new ways of responding to problems. Client-Centered Therapy centers on listening and understanding so clients feel heard and can find their own solutions.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, try methods that make sense for the person, and adjust techniques based on what helps. This is a collaborative process where feedback guides which tools are kept and which are changed.
Online formats offer flexibility for busy lives. Video calls let people use visual cues and practice skills in real time. Phone sessions work well when video is not possible or bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, ongoing encouragement, and keeping momentum between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, parenting, or travel schedules.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
Also works with
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English