Michelle Ikeda, LMFT

Michelle Ikeda is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in California with four years of clinical experience. She focuses on stress, anxiety, relationship and parenting concerns, and uses a client-centered approach alongside practical strategies to help people communicate better and cope with life changes.

Michelle describes her work as helping individuals and couples navigate differences in priorities and improve understanding. She draws on Client-Centered Therapy to listen and respond to each person's perspective. She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Solution-Focused methods to identify unhelpful patterns and find concrete steps forward.

Her background includes social services and healthcare roles involving child welfare, custody, guardianship, and intensive case management. She has worked with a wide age range of people and with families involved in child welfare or court-related situations. She also has experience supporting caregivers and family members of people with dementia in convalescent settings.

Michelle has particular familiarity with adoption and foster care issues and with developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder. She also notes experience with grief, trauma and abuse, chronic illness and disability, and fertility and fatherhood concerns. Her practice pays attention to practical communication and problem-solving skills.

She is bilingual in English and Japanese and draws on her cultural background growing up in Japan to inform her sensitivity and respect in sessions. Her routine availability is concentrated on weekends, with occasional weekday evenings for existing clients.

How Michelle Applies Therapy Approaches Online