Why Mike Founded LEVEL

Mike founded LEVEL - Therapeutic Educational Consulting with a straightforward belief:

Families navigating complicated situations deserve someone in their corner

Someone willing to ask difficult questions.

Someone who understands the therapeutic and educational landscape but doesn’t assume that a particular program or type of treatment is always the answer.

And, someone who recognizes that every young person, adult, and family has a different story.

Sometimes the next step involves additional support at home.

Sometimes an adolescent or young adult needs a higher level of care or therapeutic program.

And sometimes the right decision is to slow down, gather better information, and avoid making a major decision too quickly.

For Mike, the work begins with understanding the person and family - not selecting the program.

Professional Leadership & Relationships

Since Founding LEVEL, Mike has become actively involved in the therapeutic consulting profession nationally.

He has served multiple years on the Board of Directors of the Therapeutic Consulting Association, including serving as National Board Chair and Past Chair.

Mike Also spends considerable time building relationships throughout the therapeutic, behavioral health, educational, and young adult treatment communities. He visits programs, talks with clinicians and educational professionals, participates in professional conferences, and continues learning about treatment approaches and the changing needs of the individuals and families LEVEL serves.

Mike believes those relationships and continued learning are part of his responsibility to families.

Families are trusting LEVEL with decisions that can have a profound impact on someone they love. Mike believes that responsibility requires experience, curiosity, humility, strong professional relationships, and a willingness to continually learn.

The Person Behind LEVEL

Mike’s work is important to him, but it isn’t the entirety of who he is.

He is a husband, father, friend, mentor, and business owner who places enormous value on relationships.

Family has shaped much of the way Mike approaches his work. he understands that when one person is struggling, the effects rarely belong to that person alone. Parents worry. Siblings are affected. Relationships change. Families can find themselves organizing everyday life around the person who is struggling.

Mike believes people are capable of growth and change. He also believes meaningful change usually requires more than good intentions. It takes the right combination of relationships, expectations, support, accountability, opportunity, and time.

Sometimes families simply need someone outside the situation to help them see the path more clearly.

Helping Families Make Thoughtful Decisions

Mike knows that most families don’t arrive at LEVEL because everything is going well.

They reach out because something matters deeply and they aren’t sure what to do next.

Mike’s role isn’t to make a family’s decision for them. It is to help families better understand what they’re seeing, ask good questions, consider available options, identify potential risks, and make thoughtful decisions with better information.

When mike believes a family should slow down, reconsider an option, or take a different path, he believes part of his responsibility is being willing to say so.

Ultimately, Mike wants families to know they have someone knowledgeable and invested walking alongside them as they determine the next right step.

Common needs we help families navigate:

Autism spectrum support, ADHD/Executive functioning, anxiety, depression, trauma, adoption/attachment, substance use, school refusal, self-harm concerns, family conflict, and young adult launch delays.

ADD ADHD Placement | Autism Spectrum Disorder Placement | Aspergers Placement | Adoption Attachment Placement | ODD Placement | OCD Placement | NLD Placement | Anxiety Placement | Depression Placement | Executive Functioning Placement | Slow Processing Placement | Therapeutic Boarding School Placement Wilderness Therapeutic Programs | Outdoor Behavioral Health | Young Adult Transition Program Placement | Troubled Teen Placement | Young Adult Transition Placement | Non-Verbal Learning Disorder | Autism Boarding Schools | Therapeutic Boarding Schools | Wilderness Therapy | Failure to Launch | GAP Year Support