Michelle Castellani (LCSW)

I am an MSW,LCSW that has spent most of my career in the healthcare field. In that setting I have learned a lot of crisis intervention skills and adjustment problem coping skills as people generally go through a period of crisis while trying to adjust to a new illness and all that can go along with that. I have also been in private practice since 2007 and the bulk of my patients suffer with anxiety disorders (panic attacks, social anxiety, phobias, etc.); Depression/Bipolar disorder; Eating disorders; Relationship struggles; Anger, OCD and couples counseling. I have a Masters in Social Work and a clinical license in Social Work which allows me to be in private practice. I also have gone through a lot of training on Mindfulness (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course) where I have learned how to practice mindfulness and meditation to name a few. It is a very powerful coping tool but not everyone is open to it. Therefore I am use CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) along with a Strengths Perspective. Using the CBT allows us to understand how our thoughts affect how we feel and then how we behave, which can also be enlightening. The Strengths Perspective gets us in touch with a person’s strengths, because regardless of what we are dealing with we all have strengths and using them to build upon in the spirit of solving the problem @ hand. Sometimes we arent even aware of the skills we already have or how to use them to help ourselves in our current state. My approach can also be a combination of what is listed above but the most important way to help someone is to listen and then be able to understand/diagnose the problem clearly because we cant solve a problem without knowing what it truly is. I believe we all have the ability to embrace change when we are ready and truly enjoy helping people along that journey!