About Michelle
Michelle was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Texas Tech University (wreck em' Tech!), where she studied Community, Family, and Addiction Services, followed by Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She is additionally a wife, mother, and dog parent who enjoys spending her free time with family and friends, cooking, exercising, reading, deepening her spiritual life, and being outdoors.
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She has over ten years of experience in social services and the psychology field, mostly in acute care, including community mental health care, crisis intervention for domestic violence survivors, social work for inpatient psychiatric hospitalization, and has worked in all levels of care for substance abuse treatment including intensive outpatient (IOP), partial hospitalization (PHP), sober living, and residential care. Lastly, she has been in private practice working primarily with trauma and addiction recovery since 2019.
Michelle's experience with severe mental illness, trauma and addiction led her to the conclusion that the root cause of suffering is almost always unresolved trauma and, often, separation from God. This understanding informs the way she conceptualizes her client's suffering, and guides her approach in treating the whole person in mind, body and spirit.
Michelle's therapeutic approach is deeply compassionate, gentle yet challenging, attachment-oriented, and emphasizes addressing the "God-shaped hole" inside the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). She believes that walking with the Lord in our mental health journey gives us direction to a "spirit-led life" and a foundation to navigate a broken and suffering world.
Michelle's faith-based approach is supported by neuroscience and various evidence-based therapeutic modalities including: Somatic and Attachment-Focused EMDR, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, "Parts Work", and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies.
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"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.​"
Matthew 11:28