Get to Know Michelle Fogel-Jimenez, LAC

Profiling Central Therapy's First Intern-Turned-Employee

Michelle Fogel-Jimenez started at Central Therapy as a counseling student intern in September 2024. After a year and a half of seeing clients in her role as intern, Michelle graduated from Seton Hall Master of Arts in Counseling program, received her provisional license as an LAC, and officially began working for Central Therapy as a full-time employee this month. During her last month as a graduate intern, undergraduate intern Kyle Swords interviewed her for the first of many employee profiles for our blog. Read on to learn more about Michelle!

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In 2020, Michelle graduated with her undergraduate degree in psychology. After obtaining her degree, she explored a few different paths for herself. She spent some time going to school for physical therapy; however, she found this to not be right for her. Next, Michelle attended nursing school and through this she heard about counseling. Counseling quickly grabbed her interest, so she started attending graduate school at Seton Hall to obtain her Master in Counseling. Michelle loves growing her skills and learning, so she plans to continue her education throughout her life.

Through exploring many different paths, Michelle has gotten a wide variety of experience. Michelle has trained in CBT, EFT, couple’s therapy, and individual therapy. Some of the populations she has worked with are kids, adolescents, and adults with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bipolar, and schizophrenia. 

Michelle told me that her favorite memory in graduate school was taking intro to counseling during her first year. In this class, she met many of the people who later became her closest friends in school. This class was also led by Professor Aayesha Alvi, who, in addition to teaching at Seton Hall, was an employee at Central Therapy. Michelle quickly connected to Aayesha and she soon became her adviser. When Michelle was looking to get her first internship in graduate school, Aayesha pointed her to Central Therapy. Michelle loved the work she got to do at Central Therapy, so she stayed all throughout graduate school, and will continue after graduation. 

Michelle’s love for this work comes from her deep empathy and care. When I asked her what she finds most rewarding in her work, she told me that it’s when her clients let her know that their sessions are having a real, positive impact on them, or when a client is able to use skills learned in the sessions to aid in their daily life. Michelle values the therapist-client relationship. The best compliment she ever received from a client was from her very first client, who previously had a negative experience with therapy and held some distrust towards therapy. Despite this, they gave therapy another shot. After a few sessions with Michelle, they told her that they were happy they gave her a chance. Michelle was honored to be someone they could trust and always open up to– and I’m sure her other clients feel similarly. Michelle and this client still meet regularly, as of writing this post.

Michelle first started her mental health work in an inpatient behavioral hospital. Through interacting with the patients there, she learned that most felt like they were never heard; they attributed a lot of their problems to this. As a result of this insight, Michelle places a strong emphasis on being someone who will really listen to other’s feelings and validate them, as well as trying to understand their experience. Michelle takes a person-centered approach to therapy. When Michelle is meeting with a client for the first time, she has two main focuses: establishing a good rapport and creating a safe space. Instead of creating a structured plan for each subsequent session, Michelle likes to give the floor to the client. In each session, the client may decide what they feel is most important to cover and Michelle will then guide the session, using her skills while keeping the client’s wants in mind. 

A fun fact about Michelle: She works as a swim coach in her free time! Some of Michelle’s favorite hobbies are swimming, tickling her 15 month-old daughter, and reading mysteries & psychological thrillers. Her favorite psychological thriller so far is The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. Michelle read the entire book in one day! Her favorite quote, which I think can apply quite nicely to therapy, is “get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” She also has three rescue cats and a rescue dog (which she picked up from Germany!).

If you’re interested in learning more about Michelle’s professional experience and focus, you can see her bio here. If you’re working with Michelle for individual, couples, or family therapy, contact us to schedule an intake today!