Seeking mental health services is a courageous act. It’s not easy to tell your story. You want a professional who listens, is compassionate and attentive, understands your needs, and offers both hope and concrete solutions. And it’s not easy to determine all that reading a person’s website. You have to feel that the person is a good fit.

Apprehension about therapy is very normal. Therapy is an uncommon interaction. You’re asked to open up to a stranger, share personal thoughts and feelings, and do so without that person reciprocating. That’s not a normal experience. All of us expect to know something about people in whom we confide. It’s taking the risk to open up despite these challenges that is your courageous act.

When a potential client seeks me out who has been experiencing depression, anxiety, or some other negative emotional state, my goal is to help them feel as safe as possible sharing their personal struggles. It’s difficult to talk about the emotional weight they have been carrying while also vetting me as a potential helper. To ease that burden, some of the strengths that I apply are warmth, compassion, genuineness, a calm and grounded demeanor, focus and persistence in helping you, a sense of humor, conscientiousness, and flexibility. I want them to know that I see their pain and that I’m willing to help as best I can.

Anxiousness, worry, low mood, uncontrolled emotions, grief, insecurity, and low self-esteem are difficult burdens to carry and they can affect work/school performance, relationships, and your overall quality of life. They are also experiences that I am very skilled in helping to alleviate.

 meet mike

Hi, I’m Dr. Mike Johnson, your mental health provider!

I currently live, work, and mostly play in Arizona along with my wife, children, and our rescue pets. In addition to enjoying activities like softball, working out, hiking, camping, and good Mediterranean food, I love learning! I’m a voracious reader of psychology, politics, technology, culture, self-help, sci-fi, mystery, and biographies! I’m also an avid moviegoer!

I’m passionate about understanding and improving myself so that I can be my best self. When I think of how I chose to become a therapist, there are 4 experiences that come to mind. First, I’ve always felt like an outsider due to the shyness I experienced growing up, having an absent father as well as being a Black American man who appeared mixed-race to many. Second, despite some social challenges, education, persistence, and doing our best were emphasized in my family along with not giving in to self-pity. Third, my family struggled with being emotionally available - which made it difficult for me to be emotionally literate and able to connect with others. Fourth, in college, I became someone friends and others turned to for emotional support and advice.

These four experiences were crucial to my development as a person and a therapist.

I grew up in Washington, D.C. in a single-parent household living a mostly middle-class life. Living in D.C. I was exposed to persons from a variety of socioeconomic classes, sexual orientations, and racial, and gender backgrounds. Compassion, helping others, and being charitable were important character traits that were a part of who I am since I was a child.

Growing up I had a mostly privileged life. I never experienced going without anything like food, clothing, or shelter. However, I did experience bullying, low self-esteem, and emotional deprivation. As I mentioned, my family struggled to be emotionally available and connect with each other. Unfortunately, they didn’t have Oprah to guide them. As a result, I learned early in life to develop my capacities for being self-reliant. It wasn’t until I was a young adult that I began developing my capacity to trust and rely on others.

When I found the field of psychology, I also found a pathway to heal my wounds and gain a better way of relating to myself. It allowed me to see myself in the descriptions of others. I was able to locate who I was, how I affect others, and what it meant to be authentically me. It also gave me tools to make changes in how I show up in the world. This newly experienced consciousness inspired me to want to know myself more and help others who wanted a similar experience.

Recently, I was diagnosed with ADHD. Since learning about it in graduate school I wondered if it applied to me. Unfortunately, it seemed as if I didn’t fit the stereotype. I realized that I had developed routines that helped me manage my symptoms to a significant enough degree that I was able to function very well in academic and work environments. Socially, however, I’ve been able to determine that what I came to believe was “shyness” as a child and adult may be a consequence of ADHD. While I’m still discovering what this diagnosis means, it has given me a new lens through which to view myself and my experiences and I now have a new understanding of why I have felt like an outsider.

I’ve been practicing as a psychologist for over 20 years, but I arrived at my career through a very indirect route. I began college with the intention of being an aerospace engineer, but after several years I decided it wasn’t for me. Although I had several family members who had attended college, none of them could help me with deciding on a major. I wrestled with what I wanted to do with my life and finally admitted that I needed help. Like many therapists, my first introduction to therapy was as a client seeking career counseling. The therapist was a Black woman and she was immensely helpful in allowing me to safely explore my inner desires and passions and determine my career direction. With her help, I decided I wanted to help people deal with emotional challenges by becoming a psychologist.

 My Practice

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