About Michael
Michael Johnnson is a licensed professional counselor (LPC) with four decades of experience helping people sort through stress, anxiety, relationship strain, grief, and life transitions. He listens carefully and offers straightforward guidance aimed at reducing overwhelm and restoring routine. His manner is practical and respectful, and he partners with clients to set clear goals and steps forward.
Michael draws on a mix of approaches to match each person's needs. He uses cognitive behavioral techniques to challenge unhelpful thinking and solution-focused work for quick, practical shifts.
How Michael works
He also incorporates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy principles to help people clarify values and take manageable action toward them. He brings long experience with addiction recovery, parenting concerns, career questions, ADHD, compassion fatigue, and issues around intimacy, eating, anger, bipolar disorder, and depression.
He also supports people facing aging and geriatric questions, caregiver stress, blended family dynamics, autism spectrum concerns, and life-purpose exploration. His experience includes working with communication problems, codependency, infidelity, and grief. Sessions focus on collaboration.
Michael explains the purpose and plan for each step and adjusts pace to fit complexity. He can use brief, solutions-oriented work for immediate problems or go deeper when themes are complex. He also offers coaching-style support for career and life-purpose goals.
Michael practices in Wisconsin and conducts work in English. He invites people to start by identifying what feels most important, then building a clear, manageable plan to move forward.
Michael lists 6 ways of working on the entry:
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
- Family conflicts
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Visually impaired
Training and background
| Register | LPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 40 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Wisconsin |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Practical approaches for online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify what matters to them and take small steps toward those values even when emotions are difficult. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, life changes, and motivation-related challenges. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with practical experiments to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms. It works well for mood, worry, and many everyday problems. Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, nonjudgmental way to build motivation and commitment for change, commonly used for addictions and behavior change.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Michael will collaborate with each person to choose and adapt methods based on goals, life context, and what feels most helpful. He explains the purpose of each technique and adjusts pace to match complexity or urgency.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video calls are good for face-to-face conversation and exercises. Phone sessions can fit a busy schedule or require less bandwidth. Live chat and text-based messaging suit quick check-ins, short coaching-style support, or when typing helps organize thoughts. Together these options make therapy flexible and easier to fit into daily life.
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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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