There’s a lot that Michelle Richardson, MSW, LCSW, has learned in two decades as a mental-health professional, and there’s one truth she especially emphasizes: When you need a therapist you can trust, look for community-based care.
It’s advice rooted in peak COVID, when an increased focus on mental wellness had the unfortunate side effect of yielding new, high-volume mental-health brands that tend to prioritize quantity of patients seen over quality of results.
“While the pandemic ushered in so much less stigma around mental health, that also brought in the venture capitalists and these mega-corps who are basically putting out therapy factories,” notes the licensed clinical social worker. “When someone’s picking a therapist, you need to know that no group practice is the same. They all have their own flavor, whether it’s a different specialization or just a different way they’re operating in their relationships with the community, so I always suggest that people do shop local.”
Providing inclusive, compassionate therapy that works has been a cornerstone of Richardson’s practice since entering the field as a solo provider 20 years ago. Today, it’s a core tenant of Mindful Soul Center for Wellbeing, her group practice celebrating 10 years of caring for its community while also promoting a collaborative team model benefiting providers and patients alike.
“Our staff are building these steady, solid relationships with their clients,” Richardson says. “The thing I love about group practices is there’s a good chance that the therapist you’re seeing is getting support: They’re getting clinical supervision, they’re getting clinical consultation, they are participating in training, they’re part of a professional community—at least in our case—where they’re participating in a support network around them of people who are also growing, training and learning,”
Since June 2015, Mindful Soul has grown from two therapists in a basement office to a roughly 25-person team delivering trauma-informed care from two South Jersey locations, as well as through accessible telehealth options. Those mental-health professionals not only represent diverse backgrounds but also provide a range of specialties and treatments, making for truly individualized sessions guided by trusted, well-trained therapists.
Just like the professionals who are here to help, no two clients are the same. Knowing how to effectively meet clients where they are requires sensitivity, patience and a deep well of professional knowledge, as does knowing what kind of modalities typically work best with specific situations or diagnoses. In addition to traditional therapy options, Richardson and much of Mindful Soul’s team are trained in two particular evidence-based, experiential therapy models where healing happens through not only talking but also additional approaches that delve deeper into a person’s inner landscape.
Richardson describes internal family systems (IFS) therapy as “working with the different parts of ourselves to understand how they are creating a system that’s either functioning well or might be causing us some problems,” while eye movement desensitization and reprocessing—more commonly known as EMDR, for which she’s also a training consultant—mitigates the associated psychological distress of traumatic memories by pairing talk therapy with physical stimulation like side-to-side eye movements.
“EMDR looks at how the past is still really living with us in the present,” Richardson explains, adding that she also co-founded Syzygy Institute so therapists learn to integrate both EMDR and IFS into their work. “If we can heal some of what happened in the past, present-day issues tend to start to resolve as well. This is a deeper way of working with people, because we’re working with the whole system. We’re not just working with, for example, negative thought patterns: We’re also looking at where that lives in the body, where that lives in our memory networks, where some of these beliefs that we’ve had are rooted in past experiences. It’s a really incredible modality that can bring a lot of relief and change.”
And while Mindful Soul’s group model certainly benefits clients with its multitude of options, it also minimizes the potential for practitioners’ burnout.
“Helping therapists develop their own self-awareness, their own insight, that’s going to encourage therapists to be more grounded in their work so they’re not burning out—because, a lot of times, burnout is really about being in tune with our own nervous systems,” Richardson begins. “I think encouraging therapists to very openly talk about that kind of stuff, there’s automatically that built-in support. It’s really hard to learn new things if you’re not regulated, that’s why kids who are experiencing trauma have a harder time doing well in school: It’s really hard for the brain to both learn and survive at the same time. So therapists who are regulated and resourced, they’re able to learn and grow, they’re able to give their best to their client, they’re able to grow with their clients.”
After all, Richardson points out, making sure her team is well-supported means they have the resources they need to keep doing their jobs at the highest level possible.
“Because therapists are such helpers, they might need training in things like managing their time so they’re not seeing more clients than they can handle—and who wants to go to therapy and feel like they’re a burden on a stressed-out therapist?” she says. “I feel like my job as an owner is not just client satisfaction, it’s also investing in and supporting my team, and making sure they’re doing things in healthy ways that recognize their boundaries.”
Mindful Soul Center for Wellbeing
Medford and Haddon Heights
(856) 617-4544
MindfulSoulWellbeing.com
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Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 22, Issue 4 (July 2025)
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