Curiosity & Courage
Counseling
Telehealth in Sacramento, California
Specializing in Early Life Trauma and Stress Reduction
Counseling in Sacramento, CA
Therapy for High-Achieving Women
When Success Starts to Feel Heavy
You’ve worked hard to build a life that looks successful, checking all the boxes of what you “should” do. Yet beneath the achievements, something feels off. You wake up anxious, worried that whatever you do will somehow be wrong. You try to make everyone happy, but it never feels like enough.
By the end of the day, your energy is gone. You want to cry, but you keep pushing through because people count on you. You tell yourself others have it harder, so this should be easy, but inside you’re thinking, I can’t do this anymore.
You’ve built a “successful” career, yet you feel invisible, angry, and exhausted. You’ve made choices that once seemed right, but now you question if they ever really were yours. You thought you wanted it all, but having it all feels like too much.
Even at night, when your body aches for rest, your mind won’t stop. Sleep doesn’t come easily. You love your family, but the noise, the needs, and the constant pressure wear you down. You don’t want to quit, but you also don’t want this version of life anymore.
You Don’t Have to Keep Holding It All Together
You’ve learned to succeed by staying strong, responsible, and capable. But lately, that strength has turned into survival mode. You long for peace, rest, and joy, but guilt creeps in the moment you slow down.
Therapy can be a place to set down the weight for a while. You can be honest about how much it hurts without fear of judgment or needing to prove anything. You can be heard by someone who’s been there, and who gets it. You can begin to let go of the fear of failure, and pressure to perform.
Hi, I’m Michelle Allee, a therapist in California who helps high-achieving women who are successful on the outside but feel anxious and depleted on the inside find peace and balance without losing their drive. Together, we’ll work toward a life that still honors your ambition but also makes room for you: your needs, your rest, your joy. I provide telehealth therapy where you can join from the comfort of your home or office. Not only do I bring my professional training and skills, I connect through my lived experiences navigating many roles and building a career. I am creative and keenly attuned. I like to use humor, analogies and metaphors to connect with experiences, guiding you to feel more seen, and supporting you to build skills and a deeper understanding of yourself and your decisions. I use an eclectic approach to tailor your care to your needs, including options such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy as a partner with Journey Clinical.
You don’t have to choose between achievement and calm. Therapy for high-achieving women in California can help you rediscover what fulfillment actually feels like for you. We’ll explore what’s been fueling the stress and dissatisfaction, and rebuild your confidence from the inside out. Whether it’s a desire to be able to close that laptop and take a much needed vacation, feeling more connected to your family, or simply feel like you are enough, together we can help you reconnect to what truly matters.
I’m Michelle, I am a Counselor in Sacramento, and I Can Help
Michelle Allee, LCSW in Sacramento Specializing in Adults with Early Life Trauma
I am a therapist out of Sacramento, CA, dually licensed in California and Colorado, with approval to provide telehealth therapy in Florida. I am deeply passionate about helping people learn their patterns and old habits that seemed to have worked, but are no longer serving them. I am skilled in identifying the roots, and helping you to make changes. I am a flexible and collaborative facilitator of your process in meeting your needs.
I have been in the social work and behavioral health services field since 2002 working in schools, nonprofit organizations, and group homes. I have provided family and child mental health services, led parenting programs and supported adoptive families across multiple counties in California. I am a successful grant writer, advocate, and leader. I started my private practice in 2024 and am truly grateful to work with a variety of wonderful people across the states I serve through telehealth.
Contact Me for a Free Consultation
Asking for support can be hard, but I’ll make it easy. We’ll spend 20-minutes on the phone or through a video link. We will briefly discuss your general needs and goals and get acquainted with each other. I will tell you a little more about my self and will let you know how or if I can help. Choosing your therapist is a very personal choice, and it is not “one size fits all.” If I am not the right person, I’ll do my best to support you in how to find the right person. If I am, we will discuss how to get started. Contact me at (916)886-9358 for your free 20-minute phone consultation. My specialties include anxiety, trauma, PTSD, C-PTSD, perfectionism and parenting.
Frequently Asked Questions About Telehealth Counseling in California
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I provide different session structures to meet different needs. My rates are based on the $180 per 55 minute session. I also provide 85 minute sessions and extended 3 hour sessions for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy in partnership with Journey Clinical.
I also provide psychoeducational and skill building webinar style classes at $60 per session. For those who are enrolled in a class, but would like a short 30 minute session for support on applying the skills or information, I offer this at $90. We will discuss the best fit for you after our first session.
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There are many reasons therapists choose not to take insurance. Insurance can create limits in mental health care risking burnout and interrupted services for both the client and the therapist. Insurance often requires details that can limit confidentiality, the type of care you receive, the duration and frequency of care and requires a diagnosis that becomes a part of your health care record. This presents unnecessary restriction, limiting the provider and client in the therapeutic process to be focused on the actual healing.
Utilizing insurance can also create a bureaucratic burden for your therapist, at a reimbursement rate that is a portion of the true expense of the service provided. I would rather put this time and energy towards professional development, being creative and present in sessions, and service planning. By honoring my own work-life balance, I can be at my best for you.
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Therapy as a personal investment. Much like a doctor, lawyer or accountant, your therapist has completed extensive training . In order to be licensed in California, your therapist is required to have at least six years of formal education, additional years of practice under a licensed supervisor, take two required exams and maintain annual ongoing education throughout their careers. The skill your therapist cultivates overtime and the energy they bring is highly valuable.
I believe that therapeutic support should be accessible while also ensuring the long-term sustainability of my practice. To balance these values, I utilize an economic justice sliding scale structure known as the "Green Bottle," originally developed by Alexis J. Cunningfolk (www.wortsandcunning.com). This model relies on self-determination instead of invasive income verification, provides opportunities for those with financial abundance to pay it forward and a limited number of slots to those experiencing economic hardship - supporting access to the same quality of care.
If you have concerns about the financial investment, there are some options. You may be able to use your Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Savings Account (FSA) for services. Your insurance may also provide out-of-net work reimbursement. I can provide you with the documentation need if you have this as a benefit of your insurance. I also partner with Thrizer, a third party website to help you navigate this. When we meet, please ask me for details. I am happy to guide you through this process and discuss my “Green Bottle” approach.
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First off, thank you for being so courageous in exploring psychotherapy for yourself! There is a lot of stigma and confusion still about psychotherapy, and it is brave to even explore it as an option. Secondly, therapy is not “one size fits all.” There are different strategies and types of therapy, and I do not use all of them. Furthermore, sometimes you just don’t feel the vibe or connection that is right for you. That is absolutely okay, and important. You get to decide who you want to work with.
My process is to take 1-3 sessions gathering your current concerns bringing you to this work, your background and key parts of who you are and your experiences. We will then collaborate to identify some goals and strategies for the process. You will have time in our sessions to ask any questions you feel are needed to get a better understanding of this process. You will have documents to review as well.
I will answer your questions and support you to decide if you are ready to get started, and collaborate on how we work together. Some people like a more free flowing session, others seek structure and guidance. We will discuss this and make a plan that works for you. If either of us recognize that we may not be a good fit for this process, we can identify that too. I can provide you with ideas of types of providers or services to look for and how to find them if needed.
Remote Options for Counseling in Sacramento, California
Our office is conveniently located through a HIPAA compliant telehealth link, bringing care directly to you.