About Michelle
Michelle Varady is a licensed clinical social worker who brings ten years of experience to her practice in California. She focuses on helping people manage anxiety, stress, depression, addiction, grief, sleeping problems, ADHD, and mood concerns. Michelle uses straightforward, practical work in sessions so people can see changes in daily life.
Her approach blends body-centered work with cognitive and skills-based methods. Somatic therapy helps people notice how stress and trauma live in the body.
Background and approach
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at thoughts that keep problems going. Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers concrete coping skills for strong emotions and impulsivity. Michelle often helps people facing life transitions, feelings of abandonment, codependency, or chronic shame and guilt.
She also supports those dealing with panic, personality challenges, and substance use concerns. In conversations she focuses on clear goals and step-by-step strategies that match each person’s needs. Sessions are offered in English and she works with clients in California.
Michelle holds the LCSW credential and is licensed in California and Nevada. She combines practical skill-building with attention to how the body responds to stress so clients learn tools they can use outside sessions. People who prefer a direct, compassionate style tend to find her approach helpful.
Michelle aims to create a space where clients can make steady progress through short-term solutions and deeper somatic work as needed.
Approaches that work online and in the body
Michelle integrates Somatic Therapy with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy to meet different needs. Somatic Therapy helps people notice bodily sensations linked to stress and trauma and learn ways to regulate those physical responses. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on changing unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors that keep problems going, which is useful for anxiety, depression, and sleep issues. Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers skills for managing intense emotions, reducing impulsive actions, and improving distress tolerance.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to match methods to their current goals, concerns, and preferences. Some people begin with skills-based CBT or DBT tools and add somatic work as they feel ready; others start with body-focused noticing and move toward cognitive strategies. That planning happens together in early sessions.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. These options make it easier to fit sessions around work, caregiving, or travel and to practice skills between meetings. Many clients find that a mix of live sessions and text-based check-ins helps maintain momentum and apply techniques in everyday life.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Nevada, California
- Languages
- English