Hi! My name is Michelle Sawney. I am a Pre-Licensed Mental Health Counselor.
My desire as a counselor is to enter into your story with curiosity, compassion, and intentionality, creating a space where you feel safe to understand yourself more deeply and honestly. I believe healing begins when we learn how to be present with ourselves, our thoughts, emotions, experiences, strengths, and limitations while also learning how to develop healthier and more meaningful relationships with others.
I believe that understanding yourself more fully allows you to extend greater grace and compassion toward yourself. As you become more comfortable with who you are, you can begin to approach relationships from a place of authenticity rather than fear, shame, insecurity, or past hurt.
I believe there is tremendous value in understanding our stories, but I also believe our past does not have to determine our future. As we work together, my hope is that you will begin to experience your story differently, reconnect with your God-given identity, and develop greater alignment between what you believe, what you experience internally, and how you choose to live. Ultimately, my desire is to help you move toward greater healing, freedom, purpose, and wholeness while experiencing a life of joy, peace and purpose.
Areas of Expertise
My primary areas of interest include trauma, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, relationship challenges, boundaries, grief and loss, life transitions, emotional regulation, and personal growth. I enjoy working with individuals as well as couples who desire to improve communication, strengthen emotional connection, establish healthier relationship patterns, and work through relational challenges.
I am particularly passionate about trauma-informed counseling and helping clients understand how past experiences can influence their present thoughts, emotions, relationships, and behaviors.
What Is Your Main Goal When Working With a Client?
My primary goal is to help clients move toward greater healing, restoration, and wholeness in mind, body, and spirit. I want clients to develop greater insight into themselves while learning practical tools that allow them to make meaningful and sustainable changes in their everyday lives.
What Is Your Approach and What Methods Do You Employ?
My counseling approach is collaborative, client-centered, and trauma-informed. I believe treatment should be individualized rather than approached from a one-size-fits-all perspective.
I take an active role in sessions by asking thoughtful questions, providing reflections, offering psychoeducation, identifying patterns, and helping clients develop practical strategies for change. I also believe clients should have an active voice in determining their goals and the direction of treatment.
My work incorporates evidence-based counseling principles and techniques designed to increase self-awareness, strengthen emotional regulation, challenge unhealthy thinking and behavioral patterns, improve communication, and develop healthier coping strategies. When desired by the client, I am also comfortable incorporating faith and spirituality into the counseling process as part of a whole-person approach to healing.
What Age Groups Do You Work With Most Often?
I primarily work with adolescents and adults between the ages of 12 and 65. I enjoy helping clients navigate the unique emotional, relational, developmental, and life challenges that can occur throughout adolescence into adulthood.
Are You Passive or Active in Session, and What Can a Client Typically Expect Sessions to Be Like While Working With You?
I would describe myself as an active and collaborative counselor. I believe counseling works best as a partnership, so I am engaged in the therapeutic process rather than simply listening without providing feedback or direction. However, I do believe in creating a secure space for clients to just process and communicate their thoughts and experiences without immediate remediation.
Clients can expect sessions to provide a safe environment where they can speak openly and know that they will be heard, respected, and valued. At the same time, I believe growth sometimes requires us to examine difficult areas of our lives. Therefore, clients can also expect to be gently challenged when thoughts, behaviors, boundaries, or relationship patterns may be preventing them from moving forward.
My goal is to balance compassion with accountability. I want clients to feel supported while also helping them take meaningful steps toward the healing, restoration, and wholeness they are seeking.
What Is Your Background and What Are Your Credentials?
I am a Pre-Licensed Mental Health Counselor who has completed her undergraduate studies and is in the process of completing her graduate degree.. I have worked for over 20 years in the education and medical field providing counseling, training, and mentorship to individuals from all walks of life with varying degrees of life challenges and trauma.
My education and clinical training have strengthened my understanding of mental health, trauma, relationships, human development, assessment, and evidence-based counseling interventions. Through my counseling experience, I have had opportunities to work with adolescents, adults, and couples experiencing a variety of emotional and relational concerns.
My developing specialization in trauma has further strengthened my passion for understanding the ways difficult experiences can affect an individual’s thoughts, emotions, relationships, sense of identity, and overall well-being.
What Is the Reason You Decided to Get Into Counseling?
I chose counseling because I have a genuine passion for helping people experience healing and become whole. I personally have experienced significant healing through counseling and recognize the power it has to transform your life. I believe people can carry painful experiences, unhealthy relationship patterns, fears, disappointments, and trauma for many years without fully recognizing how those experiences continue to influence their lives.
Counseling gives me the opportunity to walk alongside individuals as they better understand themselves, process difficult experiences, recognize their strengths, and develop healthier ways of thinking, responding, and relating to others. It is meaningful to me to provide a space where clients can feel heard and respected while also being encouraged to grow.
My hope is that clients will not simply learn how to manage their challenges but will experience meaningful healing, restoration, personal growth, and greater wholeness in their lives.
Tell Us About Your Education
I graduated from the University of Central Florida and am currently pursuing my Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling at Palm Beach Atlantic University. As part of my graduate education, I am specializing in Trauma, which reflects my passion for helping individuals understand and heal from experiences that have affected their emotional, relational, and overall well-being.
My graduate training continues to develop my knowledge and clinical skills in areas such as counseling theory, assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, trauma-informed care, ethics, human development, and therapeutic interventions. I look forward to continuing to grow professionally and using my education and clinical experience to help individuals and couples pursue healthier and more fulfilling lives.
