Michael Sherman Biography
I have been in private practice for over 20 years in the Long Beach & Redondo Beach areas. While continuing to maintain an office in Long Beach, I have recently moved to Palm Springs. Please refer to the narrative on the Home Page of this site to learn about the details of my active presence in both communities.
I provide individual, family, and couples counseling across a wide range of issues including Relationships (e.g. marital, pre-marital, co-habitational partnerships), Depression, Anxiety, Grief & Loss, Substance Abuse, Stress, Anger Management, and Parenting, to name a few.
Over my years of multi-faceted clinical experience I have exhibited a proven ability to work successfully with clients of different age, gender, religion, culture, personality, and lifestyle. Couples and Adolescents have been a special focus. My clinical approach is based on Solution Focused Short Term Therapy. I believe strongly that each client comes to therapy equipped with the inherent strengths and abilities necessary to uncover and implement the steps required to resolve the difficulties facing them. I see my role in that process as being one of assisting my clients in heightening their awareness of, and access to, those strengths. I help my clients become aware of all the possibilities for change, and then collaborate with them in the creation of alternative solutions. You will often hear me say,"Do more of what's working, less of what's not; If it's not broken, don't fix it!"
Prior to entering the mental health profession, I worked for twenty years in Sales and Marketing in the Computer, Incentive Marketing, and Food Service Industries, including ten years in private ownership of my own company. I am able to put this unique combination of experience to especially effective therapeutic use when counseling other men grappling with occupational and career development issues, and/or struggling to achieve a satisfactory balance between career goals and personal or relationship goals.
In addition to my private practice endeavors, I have worked in a variety of other clinical settings. From November of 1999 to November 2001, I was a Senior Therapist with Starview Adolescent Center - a psychiatric hospital and group home - working with severely troubled adolescents. From 1997 until late 1999, I worked as a therapist with the Victims of Crime Counseling Center in Cerritos, CA. From 1996 until 2000, I worked with Managed Systems Health Care Companies of San Clemente, CA, providing Employee Assistance triage and brief therapy to hospital and banking industry employees and their families. From 1996 to 1998 I was a therapist with the Employee Assistance Program for the U.S. Postal Service in Marina Del Rey, CA. And, from 1994 to 1997 I was a therapist at Casa Youth Shelter in Los Alamitos, CA where I worked with families and teens in crisis.
I hold an MA degree in Counseling Psychology from National University and an MA degree in Public Administration from UCLA. My specialized training includes a Certificate in Short Term Therapies from the Phillips Graduate Institute, and certification in the administration and scoring of The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory (SASSI).