Michelle Goodwater, LMHC
Compassionate somatic-informed therapy for everyday challenges
About Michelle
Michelle Goodwater is a Washington state licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) with seven years of experience. She offers a warm, interactive style and focuses on practical changes people can use every day. Michelle emphasizes listening and respect while helping clients make steady progress.
Her work draws on somatic approaches that pay attention to how the body holds stress and emotion. She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Client-Centered therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy to create a flexible plan.
Background and approach
These methods are applied to issues like anxiety, depression, trauma and grief. Michelle often helps people tackle relationship and intimacy issues, communication problems, and family of origin concerns. She also supports people dealing with career stress, sleep problems, anger, and compassion fatigue.
Additional focuses include fertility and cancer-related stress, abandonment and attachment issues, codependency, and guilt or shame. Sessions aim to combine talk and body-focused practices when helpful. Michelle works with each person to set goals and choose tools that fit their life.
She avoids stigmatizing labels and centers respect and sensitivity in the process. Her background includes seven years practicing in Washington as an LMHC. People can expect straightforward guidance, practical coping skills, and gentle encouragement to try new ways of responding to difficult situations.
How somatic and evidence-based approaches work online
Somatic-informed work pays attention to body sensations and responses. Online sessions can include guided breath work, grounding exercises, and noticing bodily signals while talking about stress or trauma. These practices help people find simpler ways to calm their nervous system and feel more present.Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on clarifying values and taking small committed actions. It helps people move forward even when uncomfortable thoughts or emotions appear. Client-Centered therapy centers the person's experience and uses empathetic listening to build trust and self-understanding, which supports change from the inside out.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and how different methods fit daily life. Together they adjust techniques over time to match what is most helpful for symptoms and real-world needs.
Online work is practical and flexible. Video calls and phone sessions allow face-to-face conversation from home. Live chat and text-based messaging offer shorter check-ins or written reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule while keeping focus on therapy goals and skills practice.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Washington
- Languages
- English