About Michael
Michael Elwan is an Accredited Social Worker (AASW) with 15 years of clinical experience. He supports adults and couples who feel worn down, stuck, or quietly overwhelmed rather than broken. His approach is calm, steady and grounded in both professional and lived experience.
Many people who come to him are not in obvious crisis. They hold things together on the surface while carrying anxiety, grief, relationship strain, identity questions or burnout underneath.
How Michael works
Therapy with Michael offers a place to slow down, be listened to and make sense of what has become heavy or confusing. He brings trauma-informed and culturally responsive practice to sessions. Michael uses emotionally focused conversations alongside acceptance and mindfulness-based ideas to help clients notice patterns and shift the way they relate to feelings and to others.
Sessions aim for clarity, greater emotional steadiness and kinder self-connection. Michael's work is informed by his own life story as well as professional training. Those experiences shape how he sits with people - attentive, without judgement, and focused on practical change rather than labels.
He also continues further study in mental health and maintains professional membership with the Australian Association of Social Workers. Outside clinical work he is a husband and father of two, which influences his understanding of everyday relationship pressures. If someone wants thoughtful, unhurried therapy that addresses both feeling and function, Michael offers that steady presence and practical support.
Michael lists 15 ways of working on the entry:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
What Michael works with
The areas below are the ones Michael selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | AASW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 15 |
| Languages | English, Arabic |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Australia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Michael’s approaches work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on noticing difficult thoughts and feelings and choosing valued actions anyway. It helps when someone feels stuck by teaching practical ways to move toward what matters. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviours and helps people test and change unhelpful patterns for issues like anxiety, depression and sleep problems. Attachment-Based Therapy pays attention to how early relationship patterns influence how people connect now, and helps build safer, more grounded ways of relating.Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the process. Michael will work collaboratively to decide which methods fit a person's needs, goals and preferences. He adapts sessions over time so the work stays relevant and practical for everyday life.
Online therapy gives flexibility to fit sessions into busy schedules. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and emotional connection, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat suits shorter check-ins and text-based messaging supports ongoing reflection between appointments. These options make it simpler to keep therapy consistent while balancing work, family and other commitments.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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