Michelle Garibaldi, LMFT

Approaches that translate well to online care

Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and building understanding. The therapist follows the client's lead and helps people clarify what they want to change, which can be useful for concerns like stress, relationship strain, and parenting challenges.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions. It teaches concrete skills for managing anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and unhelpful behavior patterns, and those skills can be practiced and reviewed during video or phone sessions.

Motivational Interviewing helps when someone feels stuck or unsure about change. It uses short conversations to draw out personal goals and strengthen motivation, which works well in single-session check-ins or ongoing brief messaging support.

Deciding which approach to use is a joint process. The therapist will talk with each person about their goals, preferences, and day-to-day constraints and then recommend methods to try. Adjustments are made along the way based on what helps most.

Online sessions offer flexibility for busy schedules. Video calls let conversations feel close to in-person work, phone sessions use less bandwidth, live chat can provide quick check-ins, and text messaging supports brief reflections between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into workdays, evenings, or caregiving routines while keeping momentum between meetings.