Hello! My name is Michael McGurk, and I was born and raised in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. Growing up in the area, I was active in the performing arts community. This eventually turned into a career, as I performed on Broadway, National Tours, and in regional theatres across the country. After studying the minds and behaviors of fictional characters created for the stage for over two decades, I decided to switch gears and pursue the social science of psychology itself. I earned an MA in psychology from the City University of New York, School of Professional Studies, before entering the clinical mental health counseling program at Penn West University. As a current student, I am completing clinical fieldwork here at SHS, where I also work as a Behavioral Health Technician in the IBHS Department with children and adolescents.
My therapeutic approach is grounded in a person-centered approach to counseling. You, as the client, are the expert over your own life, and together we will work to identify and draw upon your unique strengths for finding solutions and managing problems. We will also work to identify and target any negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that may impede functioning, for the purpose of implementing solutions in order to achieve goals, as well as for improving mental health, which includes using action-based methods that focus on strength, along with an emphasis on building “mental fitness.” My areas of specialty include working with children and adolescents, on men’s issues, and working with the LGBTQ+ community, through an affirmative-based approach to counseling. This includes a focus on anxiety, depression, and trauma-related disorders. Together, we will work to create a counseling environment that is safe, trustworthy, and fun, in order to achieve goals, improve overall functioning, and achieve mental fitness.