
Michael Balaschi, LICSW
“It is important to help youth to develop resilience and emotional intelligence in this ever-challenging society.”
Michael’s optimistic perspective on life permeates his work, encouraging clients to use psychotherapy approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy mixed with psychoeducation and mindfulness. Michael has helped individuals recovering from trauma and those working on issues related to ADHD, anxiety, and depression.
Background & Qualifications
Michael Balaschi, MSW, LICSW, is a dedicated clinician committed to meeting the needs of adolescents, young adults, and families with whom he works. His optimistic perspective on life permeates his work, encouraging clients through his use of psychotherapy approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy mixed with psychoeducation and mindfulness. Through these tools, he pursues a client centered approach to establishing healthy therapeutic relationships.
Michael has worked in a range of therapeutic settings as he pursued his Master’s Degree in Social Work. He initially worked as an Intensive Care Coordinator for the Justice Resource Institute. Then he served as the Co-Director of the Social Skills Program and as an Emergency Support Counselor at the Bridge Center in Bridgewater, MA, where he worked with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. He also worked as a clinician at an agency tasked with reducing the impact of addiction. Michael’s love of work with children and adolescents brought him to work as a school-based clinician in the Plymouth schools. He continues to work as Co-lead of the Student Support Team at an alternative charter school. Now, he is expanding his work as he offers individual and family therapy at the Center.
These experiences have taught Michael the importance of helping youth develop resilience and emotional intelligence by strengthening their identity and becoming comfortable with their own individual perspectives in this ever-challenging society. Michael has helped individuals recovering from trauma and those working on issues related to ADHD, anxiety, and depression.
Michael earned his bachelor’s degree at Southern New Hampshire University in 2012, followed by his Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) in 2015 from the University of Southern California (USC). All his life, work, and educational experiences combine to inform his holistic approach to work with adolescents, young adults, and families.
Testimonials
I often think about how you helped us through our troubled time and just want to thank you again. Our relationship has grown better and better by the years because of our meetings with you, learning to communicate, and of course staying out of trouble on my end. Last year I took our whole family on safari and I surprised her with renewing our vows in the Kalahari Desert at sunset. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me and you helped open my eyes to what I really had, because at the end of the day, she really wasn’t the cause. I sincerely want you to know that I doubt we would still be together without your help. Just so you know, anyone I talk to who has relationship issues, you’re the number I give them. Not sure if you see any of them, but for their sake, I hope so.
When my husband and I started seeing Dr. Rein, we thought our relationship might not work because our personalities were too different. We had been seeing another marriage counselor for over 6 months and that just wasn’t working. Looking back, our first marriage counselor felt more like a referee. My husband and I would discuss our fights and she’d let us know which one of us was being reasonable and which one was being unreasonable; then we’d discuss our different upbringings to determine why each of us felt the way we felt. Those methods never moved us forward. Dr. Rein never felt like a referee; he felt like a coach. If my husband felt unappreciated, it was taken as a fact; it wasn’t debated. The goal was to understand how I could express my appreciation because what I was saying or doing wasn’t working. If I felt hurt by something my husband said, it was taken as a fact; it wasn’t debated or determined to be an unreasonable feeling. The goal was to help my husband understand why I felt hurt and to help him communicate his feelings in a way that wasn’t hurtful to me. After working with Dr. Rein our personalities haven’t changed but our communication has and that has made all the difference. My husband and I still have disagreements, but we know how to keep them from escalating to relationship-harming blowouts. We are much more capable of expressing our wants and needs while still expressing how much we truly care for each other. I feel like we have “us” back. We have found our friendship again; we have fun all the time and enjoy each other again. I am so incredibly grateful for Dr. Rein’s help in saving our relationship.
I just wanted to say that I enjoy the blogs that you’ve been sending and let you know that we are so grateful for your help. The “marathon sessions” were the best! That may have been more than a year ago, maybe two, but our relationship is still benefiting from the things you taught us. Now, when one of us gets upset about something, it’s not a world-ending downward-spiraling catastrophe (and that’s a relief in itself!), but instead, we can get ourselves out of it and even laugh together! It’s been great and we say all the time that we’re so thankful for you.
We are so lucky to have found Dr. Rein at the beginning of our marriage to set us on a course for happiness and success. My wife and I got married, had our daughter, and bought a house all in the same year after only dating for a year. When my wife first suggested counseling, I was skeptical and saw it as a sign of weakness and failure on my part, but Dr. Rein’s methods have taught us how to effectively communicate and work through difficult issues that we would not have otherwise been able to handle productively. We have learned to value and appreciate each other’s differences and how to avoid escalating disagreements that would lead into full blown arguments. I truly feel that these sessions have been invaluable for our marriage and well-being.
Dr. Rein is a very special couples therapist. He is highly skilled and patient-guided. He helped us to finally communicate effectively, which was very much like learning a new and better language. We highly recommend Dr. Rein. He offers couples insightful observations and suggestions in a very positive and productive environment.