Background

Born in northwestern Ohio (the oldest of four children), I grew up in a small farm town. I was named after my great-grandfather Michael, who reportedly had the first Ford dealership in the State of Ohio (he ran it out of his hardware store).

Eventually, I escaped the farm and made it to the big city of Cincinnati, where I earned a B.A. in Personnel and Group Development.

After graduation, I moved to London where I worked at a punk clothing store in Covent Garden and did window displays for Selfridge’s department store. During much of my twenties and thirties, I lived in France, England, Wales, Egypt, Denmark, Greece and (the former) Yugoslavia.

After returning to the USA, I earned a Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology while interning for “Sesame Street” in New York City.

In San Francisco, I was the Clinical Director for the Homeless Children’s Network and a counselor for Aptos and Potrero Hill Middle Schools while earning my second Master’s Degree.

In San Diego, I’ve worked as a licensed psychotherapist for Kaiser Permanente, Psychiatric Centers at San Diego and San Diego Hospice.

I opened my private practice in 2002.

Professional Affiliations

Licensed Clinical Social Worker, State of California (LCSW License #20738) since 2002

Certified Bioenergetic Therapist (Somatic Relational Psychotherapy) since 2010

Internal Family Systems Certification Program. Completed Level One training (72 hours) in 2020. Completed Level Two training (72 hours) in 2021: “Using IFS with Couples: The ‘Intimacy from the Inside Out’ Model”.

Southern California Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis

International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis

Education

B.A. in Personnel and Group Development (Honors department, graduated Magna cum Laude), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio

M.A. in Developmental Psychology, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York. Interned with “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company”

M.S.W. in Clinical Social Work (State of California, Title IV-E award winner), San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California

Completed a four-year certification program in Relational Somatic Psychotherapy with the Southern California Institute of Bioenergetic Analysis

Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.
– Rumi –

Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you will be criticized anyway.
– Eleanor Roosevelt –

If you’re honest and transparent, people trust you. If people trust you, you have no grounds for fear or jealousy.
– Dalai Lama –

Never be bullied into silence. Accept no external definition of your life; define yourself.
– Harvey Fierstein –

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.
– Oscar Wilde –

They lied to us – no one here was ever ugly – look.
– Ocean Vuong –

Don’t treat your heart like an action figure: wrapped in plastic and never used.
– Amy Poehler –