Laverne Santangelo , LPC

Laverne Santangelo is a Michigan-based Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) who combines clinical training with decades of helping experience and service. As a retired Army National Guard veteran with 23 years of honorable service, she brings a steady, experienced presence to work with individuals and families facing stress, anxiety, addiction, mood disorders, trauma, and many other life challenges. She is also a certified Wholistic Life Coach and a trained yoga teacher with certification in Trauma-Informed Yoga, integrating body-focused practices alongside talk therapy when appropriate.

Laverne has spent more than 25 years volunteering and working in helping professions, and her background includes inpatient treatment for substance use, community mental health care for severe mental illness, and development of groups that support women through major life transitions. She has supported people and families affected by addiction, guided women through feelings of shame and forgiveness after an abortion, and helped clients navigate parenting, career shifts, grief, and relationship struggles. Her own personal experiences with mental health and growing up around loved ones who struggled with addiction inform a compassionate, nonjudgmental approach.

Using person-centered planning, Laverne collaborates with clients to create individualized treatment plans and meets people where they are in their journey. She draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, motivational interviewing, and holistic methods to help clients build stability, improve coping, and pursue greater balance in mind, body, and spirit.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care

Client-centered therapy emphasizes understanding each person's experience from their own perspective, creating a supportive environment where goals and solutions are driven by the client's values and choices. This approach is helpful for people seeking empathy, self-exploration, and collaborative planning.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, offering practical tools to manage symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress while teaching skills for long-term coping. Motivational interviewing is a short-term, goal-focused method that supports people who are ambivalent about change, often used in work with substance use, behavior change, and goal setting.

Finding the right blend of approaches is part of the therapeutic process; Laverne works collaboratively with clients to identify which methods best match their needs, goals, and preferences and adjusts the plan as progress is made. Therapists aim to tailor sessions so they feel useful and relevant to each person's life.

Online therapy offers flexibility and access through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, making it easier to fit counseling into busy schedules, manage caregiving responsibilities, or continue care while traveling. For many people, remote sessions provide consistent support and a practical route to working toward meaningful change with licensed professionals.