Michaela I. Fissel, MA is a licensed wilderness guide in the state of New York, breathwork practitioner, 200-Hour yoga teacher, and has served as the Executive Director at Advocacy Unlimited, Inc. since 2019. Michaela holds two graduate degrees in community psychology (2012) and conscious studies (2022) and has completed 5 independent community based research studies exploring recovery during the transition to adulthood through a holistic, developmental, and generationally relevant approach. Having maintained an advocacy role at the federal and state level for nearly 18 years, coupled with her own personal lived experience navigating homelessness and psychiatric services during her adolescence and young adult years, Michaela brings a comprehensive and highly informed perspective to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of services designed to support our most vulnerable community members. Michaela offers an integrative approach to instruction in the field of mental health, addiction, and trauma recovery – currently teaching on the topics of peer approaches for supporting people who live with thoughts of suicide, hearing voices and altered states of consciousness, supporting recovery during the transition to adulthood, and holistic stress resilience for the helping professional. In her free-time Michaela enjoys spending time with her children, backpacking, mountain biking, and reading a good book.