Let me start with the honest version.

 

I’m Dr. Michelle E. Wade — a counselor, supervisor, educator, and someone who has been doing this work long enough to know that the letters after my name matter a lot less than what happens in the room.

 

PROFESSIONAL STORY

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I hold a doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision from a CACREP-accredited program. I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor and Supervisor in Virginia and Louisiana, and I hold national credentials in counseling, clinical supervision, and telemental health. I contribute at the national level with the American Counseling Association on ethics — which means I spend a significant amount of time thinking about the hard questions this profession asks of us, and working to make sure counselors have real, honest guidance when they need it most.

 

My doctoral dissertation examined the counselor-client relationship in a socially mediated world. That was before “technology ethics in counseling” was a phrase anyone was really using. It has been a thread running through my work ever since — in supervision, in teaching, and now in the training I’m building for counselors navigating the realities of modern practice.

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But here’s the part that doesn’t fit neatly on a CV.

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I am a cis-gendered white woman. My pronouns are she/her. I am a woman of size who has moved through this world carrying that identity — with everything that comes with it. I have navigated my own questions of belonging, of being truly seen, of reconciling who I am with who the world expected me to be.

 

That journey is why I do this work the way I do it. I know what it costs to look honestly at yourself. I know the courage it takes to want to grow. And I know that the best thing another person can offer you in that process is not advice or answers — it’s a space where you are genuinely met, challenged, and respected as a whole human being.

 

That is what I try to offer — in supervision, in training, and in the therapy room.

 

I acknowledge my own biases. I work actively to understand perspectives and experiences beyond my own. I approach every person I work with from a culturally aware framework — not because it’s a credential requirement, but because I genuinely believe you cannot do this work ethically any other way.

 

I have found I can learn as much from the people I supervise and counsel as they learn from me. That’s not false modesty. It’s just true. And it’s one of the reasons I still love this work after more than two decades.

 

Onward.

 

Dr. Michelle E. Wade, Ed.D.

Licensed Professional Counselor & Supervisor — Virginia & Louisiana

National Certified Counselor (NCC)

Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS)

Board Certified – TeleMental Health Provider (BC-TMH)

 

mwade@ultreyatherapy.com | (504) 233-3341