Michelle Sandoval

Hello! I am Michelle, owner and founder of Bounce Mental Health! I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) in the state of California. With over 10 years of experience in mental health ranging from children to adults, I am well equipped in helping clients navigate their mental health. Within that experience, I have specialized in working with neurodivergent children, teens and adults. I have worked in various school based settings and community based settings as well. My journey to mental health started in high school when I took my first psychology class and has just exploded from there.I have a deep passion for mental health and consider myself a life long learner. I quest to always learn more and grow as a professional so that I can always strive to be the best therapist for my clients. I am also someone with lived experience with neruodivergence both within myself and those around me in my personal life. I love working with this population and am really tuned in to what makes people unique and different. My goal is to make therapy as safe and affirming as possible for my clients. I have a very adaptable style that allows me to meet you where you are at in your healing and customize your treatment to fit you. I offer the warmth and understanding that you seek in a therapist while offering practical and solution focused strategies to keep you moving towards your goals. I want therapy to work for my clients and that is my main priority in my work. I will meet you where you are at and work with the skills and knowledge you have. We are on this journey together! My approach looks and feels different from other therapy models or experiences with other therapists that you may have had. Befriending our nervous systems is the key to understanding and dealing with things like anxiety, meltdowns, frustration and many other symptoms. Our bodies often get stuck in fight/flight or freeze and we get stuck there with no information or skills to get us out. Talk therapy, CBT, DBT and other therapy models are not a one size fits all. Neurodivergent folks have different needs in therapy that these methods might not be able to support. By using techniques such as befriending the nervous system, using nervous system mapping to gain understanding of how each unique nervous system operates, regulation techniques, and somatic awareness, we are able to get to the core of the symptoms faster and come up with practical solutions. This is beneficial to those who have tried talk therapy before and it didn't work or people who struggle with communication in therapy.