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My name is Michael Brollini. I am licensed in California as a marriage and family therapist, with 7 years of experience working with co-occurring mental health disorders and non-mental health disorders. It is my goal to help with learning alternative self-care activities, utilizing coping skills, and grounding techniques that could help us to function in the present moment. These are the basic fundamentals that are important through the healing process which could help improve your personal growth.
My approach
I tend to use the eclectic approach with therapy that incorporates modalities of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Strategic Family Therapy, and Emotion-Focused Couple's Therapy. I have worked in residential treatment for 5 years helping restore functionality to daily living, when available helping reunification with family and/or support system/s, helping to identify and adapt to appropriate changes to help improve quality of living. It is an important process of understanding deficits that interfere with emotional well-being, negative thought patterns, and our ability to manage day-to-day, utilizing appropriate coping methods / alternative self-care activities to improve self-growth.
My focus
I attended Argosy University in Orange County, California, and graduated in 2016. I first began my practicum site at the LGBTQ center in Long Beach and then worked at a transitional living that accepted mainly AB-109 clients (those with a suspended sentence for reintegration into society). After graduation, I worked as an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist at a residential treatment facility for substance abuse, depression, anxiety, bipolar, and many more issues that negatively impact mental health. I also have been treating non-mental health issues such as interpersonal effectiveness issues, communication effectiveness, phase of life issues, family conflicts, marital / relationship conflicts, and individual issues (some known and some to explore to gain a better understanding of what an issue might be).
My communication style
I make efforts to create a transactional type of communication environment where I listen through empathy, active listening, reflective listening, and listening for either emotional cues or thought processes that could lead to the impact of an experience. I have experienced that getting through the initial session and a few follow-up sessions helps with comfortability and the willingness to be open (open to sharing and open to be receptive to feedback). The therapeutic rapport is an important element for the therapy journey as there will be difficult experiences with building awareness, gaining insight, acceptance, adapting to changes, and learning to maintain the changes.
My journey to mental healthcare
My journey to becoming a therapist began with my undergraduate education in criminal justice. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do in criminal justice, although, I did know I wanted to either be a probation officer, a correctional officer, or a parole officer. I was working as a bike patrol security officer when I first encountered homelessness the way that it was in 2013. I began to help some who had no idea how to search for a job, get through interviews, and establish a routine to maintain the position that they were seeking to work for. Once I started to see the changes and those that would share their success with me, I brought it up to my student advisor and he motivated me to seek out psychology due to the nature of being able to use talk as a method of creating change. Once doing my research on psychology courses, I found that there was a passion in what I was reading and ever since, helping people and seeing the changes that are created through talk therapy alone has motivated me to keep reaching out to help those that are receptive, and to plant seeds for those that are not receptive hoping that one day it could help). After all, in my life, I have had support in so many different areas, and through so many who shared their wisdom. What drives me to continue doing this work is paying the knowledge/wisdom forward to those who could use it during their time of struggle and journey of change / personal growth.
My goals for you
Goal setting is done collaboratively. Goals can change at times when establishing them at the start could happen through the emotional responses from an experience. Once exploring and potentially uncovering repressed or unresolved issues, this could lead to a different direction and pace of the therapeutic process (sometimes shorter and sometimes longer).
My first session with you
The first session is more of gaining insight into the activating events that led to seeking therapy, psychoeducation (which is the learning phase of conflicts, identifying problematic behaviors, and gaining an understanding of goals).
