About Michael
Michael Hurd is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 36 years of practice who uses a practical, solution-focused approach. He acts as a thinking partner who helps people set goals and move forward. Sessions concentrate on current problems and clear steps to change.
He looks for strengths people already have and builds on those abilities. Conversations focus on what is working and what gets in the way. He addresses self-defeating habits and helps people try different behaviors.
Background and approach
Michael draws on a mix of methods to match each person's needs. He combines client-centered listening with cognitive behavioral techniques and solution-focused planning. He will use background or childhood history only when that information helps reach a present goal.
Many people come for help with anxiety, stress, depression, and addictions. He also supports work on relationship strain, self-esteem, grief, trauma and intimacy-related concerns. Additional focus areas include attention difficulties, parenting stress, career transitions, chronic health challenges, and body image.
He has written books and many articles about therapy and personal growth, and he frames sessions around coaching and practical problem solving. Michael aims to guide people toward clear, achievable changes rather than labels. He encourages small experiments that can create noticeable relief and momentum.
How Michael mixes approaches for online help
Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and building a trusting relationship. The therapist creates a respectful space and follows what matters most to the client, which helps people clarify goals and feel understood.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It involves identifying unhelpful thinking and testing new behaviors, which is useful for anxiety, depression, and coping with stress.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Michael will discuss your goals and preferences and suggest which methods to try first. He treats the choice as collaborative and adjusts the plan based on what helps you make progress.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different routines. Video is useful for more in-depth conversations and exercises, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, and messaging is helpful for brief check-ins or ongoing coaching. These options make it easier to schedule sessions around work, travel, or caregiving and let people try formats that suit their daily life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 36 years
- Licensed
- South Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, Virginia
- Languages
- English
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