Michelle Liva, LMFT

My Approach & Values

Michelle has been working with individuals and couples since 2018 and she uses the research backed Gottman Method Couples Therapy approach to teach you healthier ways of communicating and being in a relationship together. The work you will do with Michelle includes learning healthy vs unhealthy conflict management, expressing needs in a healthy way, building and maintaining a friendship with your partner, and sharing appreciation and affection for one another. She will help you explore negative relationship patterns, past hurts, and underlying issues in a safe and controlled environment where you both can learn how to share vulnerably and truly understand and empathize with each other.

Michelle strives to be a soothing and regulating presence in session to foster an environment in which you feel supported, understood, and safe to share your story without fear of judgment. Working from a trauma-informed and attachment-based approach means that Michelle understands the importance of teaching you how to regulate your nervous system and teaching couples how to help regulate each other so that everyone feels safe to have vulnerable conversations. She is trained in the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM), a somatic approach that explores how trauma is stored within the autonomic nervous system. Through TRM skills, she teaches clients how to recognize and deal with the unconscious physical and emotional reactions that happen inside them when triggered. This helps you build resilience to deal with triggers, stress and overwhelm in more adaptive ways. This results in feeling safer and more calm in all areas of your life, including when in conflict with a partner.

Michelle is also trained in Attachment Focused Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (AF-EMDR) – a type of therapy for individuals that helps you reprocess and heal memories or experiences from your past that may be causing you to have symptoms or triggers in the present. With AF-EMDR, Michelle can help you identify and heal attachment wounds from your past so that you can feel safe, secure, confident and healthy in your present day relationships.