Jared Michaels, LMFT

This work is a calling for me. I see it as grassroots activism. I love helping change the world through one-on-one relationships. When people work with me, they feel safe, they feel our bond, and they open to whatever needs healing. We also go beyond healing into areas including purpose, spiritual practice, and enjoyment of life.

I've been practicing since 2011. Here's the story of how I began.

I trace this path back to age seven, when I experienced childhood trauma. A few years later, I resolved to heal.

As part of that journey, I embarked on a spiritual path that included living for six years at the San Francisco Zen Center, Green Gulch Zen Center, and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. During that time, I developed a close relationship with my Zen teacher, Kosho McCall. I was ordained as a Zen priest in 2009 and received Dharma Transmission in 2013, becoming a Zen teacher.

My relationship with Kosho and my spiritual practice created a solid foundation for my life, and I was inspired to pay that gift forward by becoming a psychotherapist. In 2011, I received a master’s degree in Integral Counseling from the California Institute of Integral Studies. While at CIIS, I met John Prendergast, another deeply important healer and teacher for me. I have been apprenticing with him ever since. John is a former CIIS professor, a retired psychotherapist, an author, and a widely respected spiritual teacher.

I now hold being a Zen teacher very lightly. I see myself as someone committed to what’s best for us and to truth, rather than to any particular religion. I enjoy working with people from all walks of life.

I have loved psychotherapy since I began this work over 15 years ago, and I still love it. I love sharing what has been useful on my own lifelong healing path. I love helping people regain their freedom and lightness. And I love seeing the ripples of positive impact extend into the world.

Jared Michaels, LMFT

ocean of light

poetry collection

Part therapy session, part dharma talk, part songbird set free, Ocean of Light maps the terrain between suffering and freedom—in haiku-like flashes and in tender meditations. Shaped by a lifetime of inner work, these poems are seeds. Plant them quietly, and something in you begins to open.

"Wise, playful, and penetrating... spontaneous bursts of luminosity."
— John Prendergast, author of The Deep Heart and Your Deepest Ground

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