Therapist. Trainer. Practice Owner. Consultant.
About Michelle Richardson, LCSW
Who I am
My work sits in the intersection of clinical depth and practice leadership; a combination that doesn’t always develop side by side.
Most people who find their way to me are either trauma-informed therapists wanting to integrate experiential approaches more fully, or practice owners who want to lead with more clarity and less strain. In both cases, the work is the same: helping people develop more steadiness to show up fully as themselves.
Co-Founder, Syzygy Institute
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Founder, Mindful Soul Center for Wellbeing
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Contributor, IFS-informed EMDR: Creative and Collaborative Approaches, 2025
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IFS-Certified Therapist
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EMDRIA-Certified Therapist & Consultant
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Co-Founder, Syzygy Institute | Founder, Mindful Soul Center for Wellbeing | Contributor, IFS-informed EMDR: Creative and Collaborative Approaches, 2025 | IFS-Certified Therapist | EMDRIA-Certified Therapist & Consultant |
The work I do & why
For more than a decade, I have been building spaces where therapists can grow over time — not just in what they know, but in who they are becoming as clinicians and leaders.
That work takes different forms. Sometimes it is teaching — facilitating experiential workshops where therapists practice integrating IFS and EMDR in a well-supported environment. Sometimes it is consultation — sitting with a clinician who is stuck in a complex case and helping them understand what the system is actually communicating.
Sometimes it is leadership support — working with a group practice owner who is carrying far more than they were ever trained for and needs both practical guidance and a grounded thinking partner.
What stays consistent across all of it is the orientation: I am not here to give you the answer. I am here to help you develop the clarity to find it yourself.
My approach
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Whether we are talking through clinical work, leadership, or practice growth, I am paying attention to both the external issue and what is happening in your internal system.
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I blend trauma-informed reflection with clear structure. Sometimes the work is slowing down to listen inward. Other times, it is naming the next right step.
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I am not interested in more, faster, or bigger for its own sake. I am interested in ethical, sustainable growth built on discernment, steadiness, and real capacity.
Therapist Consultant | Business Coach for Therapists
Therapist, Trainer, and Practice Owner
I founded Mindful Soul Center for Wellbeing in 2015 — a multi-clinician EMDR-focused group practice in southern New Jersey. What began as a small clinical practice has grown into a thriving organization, and the years I have spent leading it have taught me more about the realities of running a therapy practice than any training ever could.
Over that time I have navigated the full complexity of practice ownership: building and losing teams, managing through COVID, navigating insurance company pressures, expanding into additional locations, restructuring administrative systems, and making difficult decisions about people whose livelihoods depended on choices I had to make carefully. That experience is not incidental to the consulting I offer. It is the foundation of it.
Alongside the practice, I co-founded Syzygy Institute with Bruce Hersey, the developer of IFS-Informed EMDR. Bruce was first my mentor in this work — I began learning the Syzygy model before the integration of IFS and EMDR had become widely discussed in the field — and that relationship grew over time into a true partnership and collaboration.
Through Syzygy, I have trained therapists across the country in the structured integration of IFS and EMDR, and have contributed a chapter on Discovery and blended protectors to IFS-Informed EMDR: Creative and Collaborative Approaches (Routledge, 2025).
Teaching and supporting therapists has been a consistent thread throughout my career.I have supervised clinicians toward licensure, guided therapists through EMDR certification, facilitated advanced consultation and training, and mentored practice owners learning to lead. That long view — across all stages of a therapist’s development — shapes how I see the work.
Trainings & credentials
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Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), New Jersey
IFS-Certified Therapist, Internal Family Systems Institute
Syzygy IFS-Informed EMDR Consultant
EMDRIA Approved Consultant
EMDRIA Certified Therapist
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IFS Level 1 with Pam Krause
IFS Level 2: Trauma and Neuroscience, with Richard Schwartz and Frank Anderson (in person)
IFS Level 3 with Chris Burris (in person)
Healing Circles Training with Chris Burris (in person)
Healing Exiles retreat, Molokai — facilitated by Richard Schwartz and Jeanne Catanzaro
EMDR Basic Training and advanced EMDR training
Syzygy Model of IFS-Informed EMDR — advanced training and certification
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Contributing author, IFS-Informed EMDR: Creative and Collaborative Approaches (Routledge, 2025) — chapter on Discovery and blended protectors
Essentials of IFS Therapy — Invited international workshop, Istituto di Scienze Cognitive SRL (now Mirror Psychology, Ltd.), 2025. Co-presenter: Bruce Hersey, LCSW
IFS-Informed EMDR: A Comprehensive Interweave — Invited international workshop, Istituto di Scienze Cognitive SRL (now Mirror Psychology, Ltd.), 2025. Co-presenter: Bruce Hersey, LCSW
BeFriending Protector Parts with IFS-Informed EMDR — EMDRIA International Conference, 2024. Co-presenter: Elizabeth Venart, LPC
IFS-Informed EMDR: A Systematic Integration — EMDR Association of Australia Hybrid Conference: Building Better Lives, 2023. Co-presenter: Bruce Hersey, LCSW
IFS-Informed EMDR: A Systematic Integration — EMDRIA International Conference, 2022. Co-presenter: Bruce Hersey, LCSW
Facilitator, Syzygy Institute IFS-Informed EMDR workshops (virtual and in-person)
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Co-Founder and Lead Trainer, Syzygy Institute
IFS-Informed EMDR Consultant, Syzygy Institute
Founder and CEO, Mindful Soul Center for Wellbeing
Member, EMDRIA
Why work with me
There are a lot of consultants, trainers, and coaches in this space. I want to be honest about what makes this work different — and what makes it a good fit for some people and not others.
I bring together clinical depth, training expertise, and real-world practice leadership. What I offer is grounded in pattern recognition developed over years of sitting with therapists, teams, and systems at multiple stages of development. I have led a group practice through over a decade of growth and challenge. I have trained clinicians at the foundational and advanced levels. I have done the inner work — and I continue to do it.
This is not quick-fix consulting. It is not surface-level support. I tend to work with people who want to go deeper, who value nuance, and who are willing to look honestly at their own patterns alongside the external challenges they bring. If that resonates, I would be glad to connect.
Sometimes the work calls for inner reflection. Other times, it calls for clear guidance, practical structure, or a seasoned perspective on what tends to help and what tends to complicate things unnecessarily. My role is to offer both.