About
The process
Therapy starts with learning about your values. Deep in your heart, what do you want your life to be about? What do you want to stand for? What do you want to do with your brief time on this planet? What truly matters to you in the big picture? Values are desired qualities of ongoing action. In other words, they describe how we want to behave on an ongoing basis. Clarifying values is an essential first step in this work.
​
We then move toward discovering what exactly gets in the way of this vision. This is done through the exploration of the Conceptualized Self – or the stories you tell yourself and others about who you are and what you experience. This includes fleshing out the mechanisms which pen and edit these stories: internal processes (thoughts, feelings, images, memories, urges, etc.), engaged behavior (choices, actions, function, interaction, responses, etc.) and dynamics with external objects (people, environments, systems, cultures, institutions, etc.).
As we become more aware of the content of this narrative and the context of your experiences, we can start the process of rewriting or authoring these stories. We begin with learning Psychological Flexibility – the practice of being present, opening up, and doing what matters. These value-congruent actions will assist you in tolerating day-to-day stressors, regulating your emotions, exercising greater self-care, cultivating healthier relationships, managing behaviors, and so much more. This expanding awareness and intention driven adjustment will ultimately offer opportunity for reauthoring a new narrative or Observing Self – an adaptive and helpful perspective and resource of knowing who you really are and what you actually experience.
​
Psychological Flexibility = Choose a valued direction + Accept your thoughts and feelings, and be present + Take action
About
The pain
This work is not often quick or easy, but you are without question able and deserving. You are not broken! You are stuck, and it is the avoidance of your pain that keeps you there. Avoidance is always the easier option and softer way, but it is preventing your happiness and perpetuating your suffering.
Here's the thing: pain is not a choice. It is inevitable and recurring. It may look, feel, or weigh differently at particular moments in our lives, but it will always be. Pain is one of the few certainties of the human experience. Suffering, on the other hand, is a condition we are taught. We enable suffering by working around our pain (experiential avoidance) instead of working through it (willful healing). This perpetual practice of avoiding pain and perpetuating suffering – day after day, year after year – develops into a self-created helplessness and hopelessness. So, the beat goes on, and on, until we confront the agenda.
True happiness incorporates pain! It is not the absence of it. That is precisely what this work is about: creating a rich, full and meaningful life, while accepting the pain that goes with it. If you are reading this, that part of you which already knows this universal truth, is inviting you to this work. Listen to that part!
My best hope is that you will honor your journey and be patient with your process. Genuine healing and authentic recovery requires energy and effort. It’s taken you time to get here and it’s going to take time to get where you’re going. Yet, I wholeheartedly believe that you are also exactly where you are meant to be at this very moment, and you are worthy of the growth and capable of the change that's coming.
​
“Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyway.” – Glennon Doyle
About
The therapist
My speciality lies in co-occurring disorders (when mental health issues intersect with addictive behaviors) but much of my practice covers a diverse range of clinical needs and psychological diagnoses. I work comfortably as a generalist assisting adolescents and adults recover from situational adjustment issues, addiction and dependency, psychosis, marital or partner conflict, anxiety and depression, personality disorders, and everything in-between.
I work within a patient lead, transdiagnostic, and trauma-informed framework. I have a certain fidelity in treating people not diagnoses. I believe in principles of nonpathology, harm reduction, dignity of choice, and multiculturalism. I conceptualize human psychology from an individual and systems perspective; navigating a melding of the psychodynamic-interpersonal, cognitive-emotional, somatic or body centered, and spiritual (the latter of which only comes to the foreground if it is important to you). While I often integrate and take from myriad psychological theories and therapy models, I am home in the blending of Acceptance and Commitment, Attachment Based, Dialectic Behavioral, Emotion Focused, Internal Family Systems, and Narrative Therapies.
My educational background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Illinois State University and Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology from Governors State University. I spent the first 15 years of my career working in non-profit Community Mental Health. For 10 of these years, I also held part-time positions in private practice. I worked hard for a long-time, across the fields of behavioral health, addictions, and higher education to attain independent privilege in psychological evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment. I currently hold the following professional credentials: Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC - Illinois) and Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CAADC - Illinois). I also carry a temporary credential (pending full approval) of Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC - Indiana). I am also in the application process for licensing in the state of Iowa.
About
The person
If there is anything you should know by now, it's probably that I'm terribly long-winded. I learned a long time ago that being obnoxious is a place that's rarely crowded.
​
I came to therapy first as a client and then as a therapist. My early life was abound in emotional neglect and abuse. The child of parents with untreated mental health conditions and addiction. The attachment and messaging I received during childhood was occasionally reinforced by the cruelty that can accompany adolescence. Much of my early adulthood was lived in service to the "not-good-enoughness" and I suffered in my trauma.
Today, I have a very different relationship with my pain and I live an active life of recovery. I am in continous pursuit of my own personal growth and willful healing. I'm not perfect at it. I'm still flawed. I'm a grateful work-in-process. I still spend Wednesday mornings with my therapist – rewriting my stories and adapting new narratives. What I know for sure: If I can heal and recover you can, as there is nothing I have that you don't!
​
I am beyond thankful for this work, excited for yours, and would be honored to be invited to join you on your journey – for as long as it reflects your values and remains in service to your purpose. I look forward to meeting you there!
​
Ever healing,
​
Michael xoxo
