About Michelle
Michelle Copley is a BACP counsellor who draws on client-centred work to help people address stress, anxiety, phobias and other concerns. She offers a warm, conversational style that aims to make starting therapy less daunting. Sessions focus on understanding what is happening now and finding practical ways forward that fit each person's life.
With 12 years of experience, Michelle uses a mix of approaches to match the person's needs. She commonly uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to look at thoughts and behaviours, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy to teach coping and emotion regulation skills.
Background and approach
She combines these with client-centred methods to keep sessions grounded and person-focused. Michelle explains therapies in plain language and works together with clients to create a plan. That may include learning new skills, reframing thoughts, or practising different ways of responding in relationships.
She aims to leave people better able to manage day-to-day challenges after sessions end. All work is offered online through video, phone, live chat or text messaging, which Michelle moved to full-time after 2020. Clients often value the flexibility this provides, especially around fitting sessions into busy lives without travel time.
Michelle works across a wide range of concerns including trauma and abuse, grief, addiction, sleeping problems, anger and low self-esteem. She also helps people with parenting stress, career issues, ADHD and coping with life changes. Her approach is collaborative and practical, with respect and understanding at its core.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening and building a trusting relationship. The therapist follows the person's lead, reflects what they say and helps them find their own solutions; this suits people who need time to talk things through and be heard.Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, looks at the link between thoughts, feelings and actions. It involves practical exercises and homework to change unhelpful thinking and behaviours, which can help with anxiety, phobias and low mood.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, DBT, teaches concrete skills for managing strong emotions and reducing impulsive reactions. It is useful for people who want tools for coping with distress and improving emotional regulation.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and what feels most helpful, then adapt methods as therapy progresses. That collaborative planning aims to match techniques to each person's needs rather than applying one fixed method.
Online sessions make these approaches flexible and practical. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and screen sharing for worksheets. Phone sessions suit those with lower bandwidth or who prefer no video. Live chat and text messaging can be used for shorter check-ins, ongoing skills practice or when typing feels easier. These options help fit therapy around work, family and daily life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Gottman Method
- Hypnotherapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 12 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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