Michael Cheng, MA

Psychological Associate PSB 94028876

Michael Cheng, MA is a registered psychological associate (PSB 94028876) at the Bay Psychology Group, Inc., where he works under the supervision of Dr. Brian Sedgeley. Michael is a 5th year doctoral student at the Wright Institute. He studied Philosophy and Performing Arts as an undergrad at U.C. Berkeley, and also has a masters in Student Counseling at San Jose State University. Michael is a second generation Chinese American, born in New York to first generation immigrant parents from China, and is semi-fluent in Mandarin.

My Process

I offer individual therapy for teens and adults who seek lasting change in their lives. Early in our sessions, I want to spend time understanding why you came to therapy: what events led you to seek therapy, what problems have those events caused in your life, what patterns of feelings, thoughts and behaviors have arisen for you since then. We will also establish what goals you want to achieve in therapy. 

From there, we collaborate on a roadmap to get to your goals. Your engagement in this process is important, and goes hand in hand with my ability to create a safe, non-judgmental environment for you to feel safe examining and expressing anything in therapy. Throughout this process, you may find that not only your self awareness and understanding increases, but that new capacities in self acceptance, self esteem, and a greater tolerance of feelings will emerge.

A major part of our work revolves around identity. Exploring cultural beliefs and values is an important part of therapy: how we experience and regulate our emotions are highly influenced by cultural and family norms. The way we express love, for example, as well as how we experience love, is shaped by the culture we grew up in. Conflicts can arise between our individual needs and the needs of the community that raised us, and many of us spend a lifetime wondering “Who am I? Where do I belong?” The process of therapy can help us regain the feeling that I am acting from a true and culturally aware sense of self, with a natural sense of confidence, spontaneity, and vitality. 

Common Issues in Therapy

Patients often come in feeling severed from meaningful relationships in their family, or with their peers, lovers, and even themselves. Sometimes patients feel they have difficulty expressing or even feeling their emotions. You may find yourself  getting involved with the wrong romantic partners over and over again, or feeling that you are always being taken advantage of by the people closest to you. Addictions to substances, feeling the need to sacrifice oneself for others, or uncontrollable outbursts of anger, are often consequences of feelings of shame or emotional deprivation that seems to always accompany one’s feeling of depression and anxiety. 

In therapy, we will work to identify the problems that you are facing and try to modify outdated expectations that once served you well, but which are now causing you to feel doubt, isolation, and hopelessness. While the problems mentioned above may resonate with you, it is an extremely important part of our work to understand that each person suffers through these experiences differently. How YOU embody and act on these feelings is different from everyone else, and our ability to tailor treatment to your particular needs go hand in hand with durable therapeutic results. 

Training

My training is as a relational psychodynamic therapist. Psychodynamic therapy is an empirically proved treatment approach that is particularly effective in bringing about long term benefits for the patient. I have trained in a number of different settings, including treating re-entry and at risk students at Menlo Atherton High School, patients at Lifelong medical clinic in Pinole, and patients suffering from severe mental illness at Richmond Area Multi-Services community mental health agency (RAMS) in San Francisco. I have treated a range of issues, including substance abuse, panic attacks, trauma, grief, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, and psychosis. I also have experience and training in various other theoretical orientations,  including CBT, DBT, ACT, and mindfulness, and I am open to discussing the possibility of working within a theoretically integrative framework.