Dr. Michelle Burns, LPC

Dr. Michelle Burns is a licensed professional counselor with 20 years of experience. She practices in South Carolina and focuses on helping people handle relationship and parenting stresses, anger, anxiety, and trauma and abuse. She aims to make beginning therapy feel straightforward and manageable for people taking that first step.

She creates a calm, nonjudgmental space where clients can talk about hard feelings and everyday problems. Conversations are practical and grounded, aimed at reducing distress and improving daily functioning. She supports people through grief, life transitions, and challenges tied to work, sleep, or eating habits.

Her approach draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people spot unhelpful thinking patterns and try small behavioral changes. Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills are used to teach emotion regulation and distress tolerance when feelings feel overwhelming. Solution-Focused Therapy helps keep sessions goal-oriented so progress is measurable and time feels well used.

Dr. Burns also offers coaching for life purpose, self-love, and career concerns, and she addresses compassion fatigue among caregivers. She brings experience with issues related to aging, cancer, divorce, and forgiveness without assuming one path fits everyone.

If you decide to reach out, expect straightforward conversation and practical tools you can try between sessions. She encourages people who are nervous about beginning therapy and supports collaborative planning of next steps.

How these approaches guide online work

Dr. Burns often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice thoughts that lead to distress and practice small, concrete behavior changes. CBT can be useful for anxiety, depression, and sleep or eating concerns.

She also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT-style skills help when emotions feel intense or relationships are a frequent source of stress.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. She collaborates with each person to choose methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. Sessions are a joint effort to test tools and adjust the plan when something isn’t working.

Confirm current session options before booking, as formats are not specified here. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule, shorten commute time, or allow shorter check-ins during a break. It can also let people join from different locations when travel would be difficult. Talk with the therapist when you schedule to clarify which session formats are available and which will best fit your routine and goals.