We’re looking forward to introducing you to Michelle Palacios. Check out our conversation below.
Hi Michelle, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
As winter approaches and the days are shorter, I find it very important to reduce my vulnerabilities to the winter time funk.
So the first 90 minutes of my mornings consist of grabbing a warm cup of coffee (first things first, amI right?!).
Then I cozy up in bed, pop in my air pods and do a 10 minute guided meditation for whatever I need to feel that day (relaxation, energy, clarity etc).
Then I do 10 minutes of journaling. I have a specific process. First i write a list of positive things such as what I am grateful for, what I am proud of myself for, or some of my favorite things that make me feel good. I find this helps to prime my brain to look for the positive throughout my day and starts my day on a positive note. Then I write one negative thought that is weighing on me and I talk back to it or challenge it, which helps me shift my perspective to something healthier that feels better. Then I make a to do list. I make a list of things that I can get done that will bring me some relief and reduce my stress and I work to cross them off through out my day.
Last, I read 10 pages of a self help type book for inspiration. You would be surprised how many books you can read by just reading 10 pages everyday!
I call it my give me 10 routine. I find these habits really help me feel good.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Michelle Palacios, a licensed therapist and founder of Life Revised Therapy, an online therapy practice serving clients across Texas. I help hard working, perfectionists who who look like they have it all together on the outside but feel anxious, overwhelmed, and never quite “enough” on the inside.
What makes my approach different is that I don’t just help people manage symptoms — I help them understand why they feel the way they do and how to calm their mind, body, and nervous system so they can finally feel balanced and confident again. My clients appreciate that therapy with me is both structured and compassionate. We work together to uncover the patterns that keep them stuck, and I teach practical, evidence-based tools they can start using right away.
My story — and the reason I started Life Revised Therapy — comes from seeing how many strong, capable people quietly carry the weight of anxiety and perfectionism. I wanted to create a space where they could stop striving to be “fine” and start learning to feel grounded, worthy, and whole — without losing their drive or independence.
Right now, I’m focused on helping more people discover the relief that’s possible through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR therapy) and other effective approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). For anyone reading this who’s been holding everything together for everyone else — therapy really can help you take a deep breath again.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
There are two defining moments that really shaped how I see the world and why I chose to be a therapist.
First, when I was around 10, my aunt gifted me the book, “Chicken Soup for the Soul” by Jack Canfield. If you have never read it, it is a book filled with feel good short stories. These stories helped me to realize that there are people walking around us that may be carrying great pain we may know nothing about and how the small actions I take can have a big impact on someone else’s life and possible relieve that person’s pain. This completely shifted my perspective on how I see others around me and how I treat people.
The second moment that shaped my life was when I was in middle school. I had a class that consisted of one whole class period where I assisted the school counselor, Ms. Lemons. I remember being amazed seeing kids walk in to her office crying and walk out lighter and visibly relieved. She was making an impact like I read about in the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. It was the first time I realized that you can have a career that consisted of making a difference. What I did not know at the time was that Ms. Lemons had cancer. Sadly, she died that year. In her memory, the school created a scholarship in her name and I was asked to speak at an event where they announced it. I remember looking out at that crowd before I gave that speech and being in awe at the hunderds of people that were there in her honor because she touched their lives in a positive way. I knew at that point I wanted to do the same thing with my own life.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Success can make you feel accomplished, but suffering teaches you how to be human. It strips away the illusion that being strong means doing everything perfectly or never struggling.
I have battled an autoimmune and anxiety disorder. As a recovering perfectionist myself, this proved to be a significant challenge. I had knowledge of what I was facing and was very familiar with the treatment because of my education and training, but I did not fully comprehend the gravity or the difficulty of it until I experienced it first hand. Suffering in those ways helped me better understand what my clients feel and how challenging the treatment can feel at times. this helped me to be a more successful treatment provider.
Through my own hard seasons, I learned that growth doesn’t come from pushing harder—it comes from slowing down, asking for help, and learning to be kind to yourself in the process.
Those lessons deeply shape how I show up as a therapist. I understand what it’s like to feel like you “should” have it all together but still feel lost, anxious, or exhausted inside. Suffering taught me that healing isn’t about fixing yourself—it’s about remembering that you were never broken to begin with. That truth is at the heart of my work with clients today.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
I think smart people often get it wrong by believing that if they can just think their way through something, they can fix it. They rely on logic, problem-solving, and sheer effort to manage stress or emotions — but that’s not how healing works. You can’t outthink anxiety or overachieve your way out of burnout.
Smart people are amazing at analyzing, planning, and achieving, but they often ignore the signals their body and emotions are sending until those signals become too loud to ignore. What they miss is that emotional wellbeing isn’t just a mindset problem — it’s a nervous system problem. The real work is learning to slow down, listen inward, and create safety within yourself instead of trying to “figure it out” in your head.
That shift — from overthinking to self-understanding — changes everything.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
If I retired tomorrow, I think my clients would miss having a space where they don’t have to be “on.” So many of the people I work with are used to being the strong one, the problem-solver, the person everyone relies on. In our sessions, they finally get to exhale — to stop holding everything together and start figuring out what they actually need.
My clients often tell me they appreciate that I’m real with them. I don’t just nod and listen — I help them understand what’s really going on underneath the anxiety, perfectionism, and self-doubt, and I teach them practical tools that actually work in real life. They leave our sessions feeling grounded, clear, and capable — not just heard, but changed.
So if I retired tomorrow, I think they’d miss that mix of honesty, safety, and strategy — a space where they can be fully themselves and make real progress toward feeling calm, confident, and enough.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.LifeRevisedTherapy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liferevisedtherapy/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-palacios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LifeRevisedTherapy/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LifeRevisedTherapy
