About Michele
Michele Bonanno is a licensed mental health counselor with 32 years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, trauma, depression, and self-esteem struggles. She also supports those facing ADHD, addictions, grief, relationship concerns, parenting stress, and career challenges. Michele practices from Florida and offers services in English to both local and international clients.
Michele’s work is practical and person-centered. She listens to what matters most and helps people build skills they can use day to day.
Background and approach
Sessions focus on what the client wants to change and small steps toward those goals. She integrates body-based awareness with talk therapy. That means paying attention to physical signals like tension or breath alongside feelings and thoughts.
This combined approach can help when emotions feel stuck in the body or when memories are hard to settle with words alone. Michele also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Attachment-Based ideas to help people notice patterns and choose actions that match their values.
Cognitive Behavioral strategies are used to identify unhelpful thoughts and try different ways of responding in real life. Clients can expect a calm, steady presence that focuses on practical tools and compassionate listening. Michele helps people sort priorities, cope with life changes, and develop healthier habits.
The aim is clearer choices and more calm in daily life.
How approach and online formats come together
Somatic work pays attention to the body’s signals like breath, tightness, or restlessness and uses gentle awareness to help emotions move. It can be useful for trauma, chronic stress, and when feelings feel stuck in the body.Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify what matters to them and take small action steps toward those values, even when uncomfortable thoughts or feelings show up. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship patterns shape current ways of connecting and helps people build different responses in relationships.
Finding the right combination of approaches is part of the therapeutic process. Michele will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their goals and comfort level. The choice of techniques adjusts over time as needs change.
Online formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation from home, while phone sessions offer a simpler option when video is not possible. Live chat and text-based messaging provide flexible, shorter ways to check in between sessions. These options support regular contact and practical continuity while working toward clearer choices and better daily coping.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of issues does Michele help with?
How would you describe her therapeutic style?
How much experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
Can sessions be held in other languages or for people abroad?
What session formats are available?
How are fees and payment structured?
What steps are needed to begin working together?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- 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
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- 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)
- Dissociation
- 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
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 32 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English