Michelle Santana

Michelle Santana is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with seven years of experience based in Connecticut. She works with adults and teens facing stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, career doubts, and major life changes. Michelle also focuses on issues like attachment wounds, family of origin concerns, body image, and questions about life purpose.

She favors clear, practical work alongside deeper reflection. Sessions often combine evidence-based techniques with exploration of past experiences and somatic - mind-body - practices. When appropriate, she shifts to a solution-focused mode to help identify small, doable steps forward.

Michelle speaks English and Spanish and brings her perspective as a first-generation professional into conversations about culture and family expectations. She pays attention to how cultural identity shapes beliefs about work, relationships, and personal goals.

In sessions she is straightforward and collaborative. Conversations aim to slow things down, help clients name recurring patterns, and test small changes in everyday life. That might mean tracking reactions, trying short behavior experiments, or practicing grounding and body-based strategies.

Practical matters are part of the work. Michelle notes that cost varies by location and that sessions are provided via a subscription that can be canceled at any time. To begin, people complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule a first session through the platform.

Evidence-based techniques and online sessions

Michelle uses a mix of evidence-based techniques alongside somatic and reflective work. Cognitive-behavioral style strategies focus on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors to reduce anxiety or improve mood. These techniques help with day-to-day stress, worry, and making clearer choices about work or relationships.

She also integrates somatic - mind-body - approaches that attend to bodily reactions and movement. Those methods can be useful for people who notice tension, dissociation, or strong physical responses to stress. Michelle balances these with reflective exploration of early attachment experiences to understand recurring relationship patterns and feelings of emptiness or abandonment.

Finding the right mix is collaborative. She will work with each person to decide which approaches fit their goals and comfort level, and adjust the plan as progress or new material emerges.

Confirm current session formats before booking since the biography does not list specific online options. In practice, online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, allow shorter check-ins, and reduce travel time. It can also let people choose work that matches their energy level on a given day - for example more somatic exercises in some sessions and focused problem-solving in others.