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Attunigrate

  • Depression & Low Mood Therapy in Michigan

    Attunigrate offers virtual therapy for adults across Michigan living with depression and persistent low mood. The kind that has been around long enough that you have stopped calling it anything. Sessions are online, most major insurance is accepted.

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Does this sound like you?

Getting through the day takes everything, and the day was not hard

You've stopped looking forward to things without deciding to

You're functional. You go to work, you answer messages, and none of it

 reaches you

Things you used to enjoy now feel like tasks with better branding

People ask if you're okay less often than they used to, because you got

 better at the answer

You cannot point at a reason, which makes it harder to justify getting help

What's actually happening

Depression is not sadness turned up. It is closer to a loss of drive: the system that generates wanting has gone quiet, so the things that would help are also the things you have no appetite for. That loop is the illness, not a failure of willpower inside it.


This is why advice lands so badly. Exercise, sunlight, and seeing people do help, and they all require exactly the resource depression removes first. Telling someone to do them is not wrong, it is just not usable.


Therapy works from the other end. Rather than starting with what you should be doing, it starts with what is actually available to you right now, which is usually more than nothing and much less than the advice assumes.

How we treat it

CBT

Structured, practical work on the loop between what you do, what you expect, and how you feel.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

The part of you that performs and the part that resents performing are both trying to protect you. IFS gets them talking instead of fighting.

Narrative Therapy

Separates you from the story depression tells about you, which is usually that this is simply who you are.

If you've tried therapy before and it didn't help

A lot of people come to us after therapy helped them understand what they were feeling, but didn’t actually make them feel different. You may already know the patterns, the triggers, and where some of this comes from, and still feel flat, disconnected, or stuck. That doesn’t mean therapy can’t help. It may mean you need a different approach, a different pace, or simply a therapist who fits you better.

That fits the depression page much better than the culture/translation version, while keeping the same job of the section: “I tried therapy already. Why would this be different?”

What the first six sessions look like

Before you start

A free consult with the therapist you have been matched to. You are matched on what you are bringing, not on who has an opening, and you still have to feel safe with the person in front of you. We verify your insurance and tell  you your exact cost before session one.

Sessions 1 and 2

 History and what brought you here: the primary concern, and the life events that led to it. There is paperwork at this stage, and it can feel like a lot. No one is asking you to relive anything yet. By the end of session 2, you and your therapist set goals together, on a three- to six-month horizon.

Sessions 3 and 4

 You are both still getting acclimated, and you are deciding together how to approach the thing you came in for. Your therapist is mostly listening here rather than teaching. This is your time to talk and put things down.

Sessions 5 and 6

 If EMDR was part of the plan at intake, this is usually where it starts. If it was not, this is often where your therapist starts handing you language: words for patterns you have lived a long time without being able to name. By this point, the early doubts have been said out loud and dealt with, and it feels safe to work.

How long does this actually take?

Most clients notice something has shifted somewhere between three and six months in. Real, but not dramatic. The larger changes tend to arrive in year one and year two.


We would rather tell you that now than have you decide at month two that therapy does not work. Nishani, Shelby, and Desiree work psychodynamically, which starts from the position that people do not change quickly and there is no point pretending otherwise. Many of their clients stay for years because they want to. If you want something more contained, Dr. Leija works short-term, usually six to eight months.

Who you'd work with

Desiree Messina

LCSW

Eating disorders, body image, athletes, and performance pressure

What clients say

"Desiree gave me exactly what I needed to work on. My relationship with food has been changing for the better because of her. She gets it."  (J.P.)

Meet Desiree

Dr. Silvia Leija

PhD, LMFT

Bilingual Spanish. Couples, chronic pain, complex trauma, immigration evaluations

What clients say

"I love love love Silvia. She helps me alot. I can see different points of views when I'm stuck. And I love that we align on so much."  (A.T.)

Book with Dr. Silvia

Shelby McCliggott

LPC, ACS, EMDR-T

Sexual assault and domestic violence recovery, PTSD, veterans, Black women's mental health

What clients say

"Shelby has been incredible to work with. I am getting to process so much. She is direct but effective. So glad I found her."  (K.D.)

Book with Shelby

Insurance & Payment Options for Therapy in Michigan

We accept most major insurance plans. Attunigrate is in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Care Network, Aetna, Priority Health, and UnitedHealthcare.

Most clients using insurance pay a copay between $25 and $75 per session, depending on their plan. We verify your exact cost before your first session so there are no surprises.


Private pay is $150 per session with most of our therapists, $175 with Dr. Leija.
We do not accept Medicare or Medicaid.

Check your coverage
See full pricing

You don't have to explain why

Book a first session and tell us what's going on. We'll take it from there.

Start your becoming

FAQ's

They share most symptoms, so the honest answer is that it is often both. The useful difference is scope. Burnout usually attaches to a domain, most often work, and lifts somewhat when you are fully away from it. Depression tends to flatten everything, including what you would otherwise enjoy.

Yes. Functioning is not the threshold. A lot of the people we see are performing well and feeling nothing, and waiting until it visibly breaks makes it harder to treat, not easier.

Not through us. Attunigrate provides therapy, not prescriptions. If medication is worth exploring, your therapist will talk it through and coordinate with a prescriber if that is what you want.

That is common and it is not a disqualifier. Depression frequently has no locatable cause, and the absence of one is not evidence that you are making it up or that therapy has nothing to work with.

Most clients notice something has shifted between three and six months in. A typical course here runs six months to a year.

Usually. We are in network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Care Network, Aetna, Priority Health, and UnitedHealthcare. Most clients using insurance pay a copay between $25 and $75 per session. Private pay is $150, or $175 with Dr. Leija. We do not accept Medicare or Medicaid.