About Toni
Toni Hernalsteen is a licensed master social worker who helps people facing stress, anxiety, addiction, grief, depression, and relationship challenges. She works with individuals and offers a direct, practical style that focuses on what matters now. Toni aims to make the first steps easier and meet people where they are.
Her approach blends body-oriented work with talk therapy. She uses Somatic practices alongside Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients notice how feelings show up in the body and then respond differently.
Background and approach
Sessions often include grounding, breathing, and simple movement alongside reflection and goal-setting. Toni has 17 years of professional experience in Michigan and holds the LMSW credential. She has helped people cope with chronic pain, caregiving stress, addictions, major life changes, and concerns around intimacy and self-esteem.
Her background includes work with substance-related issues and various life stressors. In sessions she listens actively and adapts the plan to each person’s needs. She describes her style as creative and solution-focused, helping clients find motivation and keep going.
Expect clear conversation, practical tools, and steps you can try between meetings. Toni offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time, and costs vary with location and therapist availability.
To begin, clients complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule according to therapist availability.
How somatic and evidence-based approaches fit online care
Somatic work focuses on the body's signals and simple, embodied practices such as grounding, breath work, and awareness of physical tension to help people notice and shift how they respond to stress and emotion. This can be useful for trauma responses, anxiety, chronic pain, and when feelings get stuck in the body.Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, teaches practical ways to accept difficult thoughts and feelings while choosing actions that match personal values. It is commonly used for anxiety, depression, and life transitions and pairs well with somatic awareness by linking values to bodily experiences.
Client-centered therapy emphasizes an open, nonjudgmental relationship where the therapist listens and follows the client's concerns. It supports building self-understanding and clearer goals before adding skills or behavioral strategies.
Choosing the best approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with the client about needs, goals, and preferences, then try methods that match those priorities. Adjustments are made along the way based on what helps most.
Online formats - video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging - make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives. Video and phone allow real-time conversation and guided somatic exercises, while chat and messaging support short check-ins, coaching-style prompts, and homework between sessions. These options increase flexibility and make consistent care more achievable.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- 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
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed
- Michigan
- Languages
- English