Berkeley Somatic Psychotherapy with Nathan Michael

"Nathan is a compassionate person and creates a safe space for me to experience and express my thoughts and feelings. I am grateful for the support I have received in my deep work and wholeheartedly recommend them for therapy."

"Nathan has been my colleague since 2019. He cares deeply about the practice of psychotherapy and is dedicated to helping clients. He approaches the work in a compassionate and curious way and he is committed to and very considerate of issues related to social justice. I feel confident when I refer a client to Nathan."

"I have known Nathan for several years and am well-acquainted with his work and professional standards. Nathan practices with great imagination, curiosity, and integrity. I can recommend him highly."

"To whoever is reading this, and especially to those who are currently new to therapy and looking for a therapist, please, please, do not go to Nathan Michael. Not only was Nathan a poor therapist during our first meeting, he also was incredibly predatory in the way he went about handling a new client in a vulnerable position, and furthermore attempted to commit health insurance fraud. All of this has been incredibly frustrating for me to deal with. To begin, during our first meeting on a Monday, Nathan pressured me to talk far too deeply about my personal issues, more than was appropriate or necessary considering that I was only planning to see him for a month, and moreover made it very clear that I wanted a targeted and concrete solutions based approach. In spite of this, he pushed me to continue talking to no end about my issues, and even pushed to do a 'trauma' timeline form my childhood all the way to where I am now, despite how I paused multiple times in order to ask him if he had anything insightful to add or say. This left me feeling drained, and I somehow felt like I had overshared even though this was therapy, and my first ever appointment at that. I also got the feeling that he had pushed me to say so many things as a way to uncover more subjects with which he could 'treat' me, and also string me along for more appointments. I then proceeded to book an appointment with him on Thursday of that same week. However, I ended up having to cancel on him the next morning, due to the fact that I was still trying out different therapists to see who would be a good fit. However, Nathan told me because I had messaged him 46 hours and not 48 hours before our Thursday appointment, as per his cancellation policy, he was unable to cancel our appointment. He moreover attributed this to the fact that "Headway has a strict 48 hour cancellation policy." Not only did he fail to tell me upfront that his cancellation fee was $200, but he moreover lied about the fact that Headway determines its providers' cancellation fee, when it says clearly on the Headway website that cancellation fee policies are determined by each individual therapist. I ended up being hit with a $200 cancellation fee taken directly from my bank account. Nathan made no effort to waive the fee or reduce it, despite the fact that I had only met with him ONCE, cancelled incredibly close to his cancellation window, and furthermore had less than 24 hours to cancel my appointment. And finally, it was clear from the way I was interacting with him that I was clueless about the fact that cancellation fees couldn't be billed to my insurance company, and he still proceeded to not say anything. I contacted him multiple times about this and was clearly distressed because I was suddenly hit with a $200 cancellation fee. I made it clear in all my messages that I wanted to discuss the cancellation fee with him over a quick phone call. Not only did he only respond hours upon hours later, but he took another day and a half to propose APPOINTMENT SLOTS with him. I was floored by that fact that he was attempting to schedule me for therapy appointments BILLABLE TO MY INSURANCE COMPANY just so I could speak to him about a BILLING ISSUE. There isn't a single situation in which discussing a billing issue would constitute an appropriate subject for a therapy appointment covered by insurance. If this doesn't constitute attempted health insurance fraud, then I don't know what does. After I responded to this attempt politely, he hasn't responded since. On top of all this, I talked about all my interactions with him with two other therapists I was in contact with, both of whom told me that his behavior was strange and unacceptable, with one of them also confirming that the way he went about our first meeting was just bad therapy, plain and simple. You really can't make any of this stuff up, because all of it just happened this last week. So when I say to stay away from this guy, it's for your own good. Cheers!"

"I know Nathan through years of somatic psychology training and as a professional colleagues. I believe he is an excellent heart-centered, intelligent, knowledgeable, and down to earth therapist who cares deeply for his work. I am very impressed with Nathan's desire to constantly remain curious and dedicate himself to learning and improving. I believe he shows a great deal of compassion and care to his clients, and is able to hold people where they're at without judgment. Nathan is someone that I confidently refer a lot of clients to."