Michael Cardaci, LCPC
Michael Cardaci is a full-time private practitioner with 30+ years of mental health experience. He is a dedicated, client-focused psychotherapist with experience serving diverse client populations across the age spectrum with a broad range of concerns and psychiatric disorders. Michael has worked in Community Mental Health Clinics, Juvenile Detention Centers, and Long-Term Residential Treatment Centers. Clients regard him as a down-to-earth therapist who is sometimes a little salty. He enjoys working as a solo practitioner as well as in professional settings with invested clinicians where he can apply his knowledge and skills in a practical and proactive manner.
Michael focuses on individual and family psychotherapies. With his adult clients, he and his clients focus on individual sessions with infrequent conjoint sessions only as needed. With children and adolescents, Michael and his clients focus on both individual and conjoint sessions as necessary. He sees children, adolescents, adults, and seniors (Ages: 5½ to 60+) whose challenges include, though are not limited to, ADD/ADHD, Adjustment Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Behavioral Problems, Emotional Regulation Issues, Grief & Loss, Interpersonal Conflicts, Life Transitions, Mood Disorders (Bipolar & Depressive Disorders), Parent-Child & Sibling Relations, PTSD, Quality of Life, Stress Management, and Trauma Recovery.
Michael has been trained in a broad range of evidence-based clinical approaches and takes an eclectic client-focus approach to treatment. In this current practice, he draws upon the following approaches — Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Ericksonian Metaphor-Narrative, Eye Movement Integration (EMI), Mindfulness-Based/Neurologically Informed Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), Process-Oriented & Problem-Focused Therapy, Psychophysiological Regulation Modalities, Social-Cognitive/Social Learning Approaches. In his Primer to Psychotherapy, Michael begins by helping clients develop an understanding and apply several concepts including Locus of Control, Perception-Emotion, and Radical Acceptance.
Michael served for several years as the Legislative Chairperson and the President on the Board of the Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors of Maryland (Professional Association). Clinically, Michael is interested in advanced training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Eye-Movement Integration (EMI-EMDR), Metaphor-Narrative, Mindfulness Based/Neurologically Informed Cognitive Therapy (MBCT/NICT), Mind-Body-Spirit Integration, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), and Psychophysiological Treatment Approaches (Biofeedback/Neurofeedback plus Psychophysiological Regulation Techniques). He also enjoys creative pursuits (e.g., aquascape, fine art, game design, photography, web design, writing), multi-media (e.g., anime, movies, nature & science, streaming), reading (e.g., fantasy/sci-fi, neurobiology, trauma recovery) and tech (e.g., building computers, photography and professional software, and video games).
License: Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LC2621) Education: Georgetown University, Psychology, BS (Minors: Biology & Fine Art); George Mason University, Clinical Psychology, MA (ABD).