About Rachael
Rachael McKinnon is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) who has spent 14 years helping people navigate stressful and painful moments. She works with adults on problems like anxiety, depression, addictions, grief, and relationship strain. Her style is warm and direct, and she aims to make therapy feel practical and doable.
Rachael takes a collaborative approach in sessions. She listens first, then helps clients set clear, achievable goals. Conversations often include skill practice and simple exercises to manage feelings and behavior between appointments.
Background and approach
Her background includes work with trauma, mood concerns such as bipolar disorder, sleep difficulties, and co-occurring substance issues. She also addresses identity-related concerns for LGBT clients and the emotional effects of caregiving, aging, or chronic illness. Rachael draws on several therapy methods to meet each person where they are.
In sessions she uses strategies from acceptance and commitment work, cognitive behavioral techniques, and mindfulness to reduce symptoms and increase valued action. She also brings client-centered and dialectical ideas to help people feel heard and build better emotion regulation skills. Rachael offers online care from Michigan and conducts sessions in English.
She provides a mix of video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. To begin, people complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule according to availability.
How Rachael’s Approaches Translate to Online Care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice thoughts and feelings without getting stuck and then choose actions that match their values. It can be useful for anxiety, avoidance, and motivation challenges. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and testing new behaviors to reduce symptoms like depression and panic. Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple attention and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and improve emotional awareness.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Rachael will talk with each person about goals and preferences, try strategies, and adjust the plan based on what helps. She mixes elements from different methods when that better fits a person’s needs and circumstances.
Online sessions give practical flexibility. Video calls let people use visual cues and work through exercises together. Phone sessions can be shorter check-ins or a good option when bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging allow ongoing support between sessions and make it easier to fit therapy into a busy day. These formats help people keep therapy consistent while balancing work, family, and daily life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- Michigan
- Languages
- English
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