Michaela McDonald

Hello! My name is Michaela.

I like walking outside barefoot, cooking veggies with lots of olive oil and laughing at myself. When I am not working, I enjoy playing outdoors with my husband and three kids, listening to Buddhist podcasts, and consuming historical fiction (on the page and screen).

I understand therapy as a loving container to voice our innermost thoughts, feelings and experiences and the therapeutic relationship as a powerful agent of change. My background in family therapy helps to support individuals and couples seeking to make change in their lives. I feel privileged to work with parents of young children who wish to lean into their roles as both compassionate caregivers and boundary spanners. Between the parenting intention to share a kind correction and the real time behavior of a critical or triggered reaction, there is often traumatic material. Sometimes, individuals who are parenting have worked tirelessly to shed the programming of their childhood or culture but are stirred in a new way by parenting. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) Therapy can help with that.

I am also passionate about holding space for twentysomethings setting out to align their young adult life and decisions with their values and goals for the future. Many of us launch from a nest with the implicit, structured support of a family home or a college campus. Frequently, we struggle when those scaffolds fall away. EMDR therapy offers structured support so that you can realize your vision of the future.

I am a Licensed Social Worker with a Masters of Social Service in Clinical Social Work from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. I combine my EMDR training with eleven years of clinical experience in birth, family systems, educational and health care settings to offer trauma integrated, culturally competent, compassionate care.