Michelle Ely

Michelle Ely is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who practices in Alaska. She brings a warm, direct manner to sessions and aims to help people reduce stress, manage anxiety, and work through relationship and parenting concerns. Her tone is respectful and compassionate, and she encourages clients to build on their own strengths. Michelle draws on a wide mix of approaches and matches interventions to each person’s needs. She has six years as an LCSW and a longer history in social work prior to licensure. That background informs her work with trauma, anger management, grief, and intimacy-related issues. She also supports people facing life changes such as career transitions, caregiver strain, and challenges tied to intellectual disability. Other areas she addresses include communication problems, blended family adjustments, and matters tied to guilt, shame, and forgiveness. Michelle describes her style as interactive and practical. Sessions often focus on clear steps clients can try between meetings, plus straightforward conversation about what’s working and what needs to change. She treats people with sensitivity while offering direct feedback when it helps. Taking the first step can feel hard, and Michelle emphasizes the client’s own expertise in their story. She helps clients identify strengths and small, achievable goals. This approach is meant to make progress feel realistic and measurable.

How therapeutic approaches guide online counseling

Michelle describes her work as eclectic and evidence-based, choosing techniques that match each person’s needs. Two common approaches she uses are trauma-informed techniques, which focus on helping people process past hurt in manageable steps and reduce symptoms that get in the way of daily life, and problem-focused strategies that identify practical actions to lower stress and improve communication. Both are aimed at concrete changes like better coping skills, fewer angry outbursts, or clearer conversations with loved ones.

Finding the right method is part of the process. Michelle works collaboratively to figure out which approaches fit a person’s goals and preferences. She listens to your experience, suggests options, and adjusts methods as progress is tracked together.

The biography does not list specific online formats, so confirm current session options before booking. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, reduce travel time, and allow for shorter check-ins when needed. Licensed professionals can adapt exercises, homework, and conversational work to remote sessions so therapy stays practical and focused on everyday problems.