About Michele
Michele Petersmark is an Illinois-licensed LCPC with two decades of clinical experience who centers her practice on empathy and individualized care. She combines client-centered listening with evidence-based strategies to address stress, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and motivation challenges.
Background and approach
Michele adapts treatment plans to each person's needs, drawing from cognitive behavioral and dialectical behavior therapy as well as mindfulness and solution-focused techniques to help clients build coping skills and restore balance.
Her work extends to relationship and intimacy-related concerns, family issues, trauma and grief, and a range of mood and behavioral difficulties including bipolar disorder, panic attacks, and personality-related struggles. Additional areas of focus include parenting, career stress, fertility and aging concerns, abandonment and infidelity, and challenges like impulsivity, guilt, and isolation.
Michele also supports clients managing eating and sleeping disruptions, postpartum depression, ADHD-related matters, compassion fatigue, and financial or life-purpose questions. She emphasizes respect, sensitivity, and compassion throughout the therapeutic process, encouraging people to take courageous first steps toward change.
Michele offers flexible online options and tailors conversations and interventions to match what each client brings to therapy.
Evidence-Informed Approaches Delivered Online
Client-centered therapy puts the client's experience and goals at the center of each session, encouraging open exploration and collaboration; it helps when someone needs a supportive space to clarify values and direction. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on identifying and reshaping unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which can be effective for anxiety, depression, and stress-related problems. Dialectical behavior therapy offers practical skills for regulating intense emotions, improving distress tolerance, and enhancing interpersonal effectiveness, useful for mood instability and relationship challenges.Determining the right approach is part of the therapeutic work. Michele partners with clients to evaluate which methods match their needs, goals, and preferences, and she adjusts techniques as progress unfolds to ensure the plan stays relevant and effective.
Online therapy with video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging provides flexibility for busy schedules and for people who need remote access across time zones. These formats make it easier to maintain continuity of care, practice skills between sessions, and fit therapy into everyday life while working with licensed professionals who tailor interventions to individual concerns.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of concerns does Michele address?
What therapeutic approaches are used in sessions?
How much clinical experience does Michele have?
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Are sessions available in languages other than English?
Which session formats are offered for online care?
How does pricing work for sessions?
What are the first steps to begin therapy?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English