Professional experience has taught Michelle Snyder ’09 that effectively grappling with both the existential and spiritual dimensions of life is essential to a person’s developmental health and wellness. A licensed clinical social worker with a diverse human services background—homeless ministry in New York City, nursing-home chaplaincy work in northwestern Pennsylvania, forensic mental health services at the Elk County Jail in central Pennsylvania, and extensive international experience in the non-Western world as Pittsburgh Seminary’s 2003 Valentour World Travel Fellowship winner—Michelle’s additional theological degree dually qualifies her to provide a unique therapeutic perspective in her practice of counseling.
Michelle has served as a therapist for the Samaritan Counseling Center and the Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute, and she directs both the Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute and Clergy and Congregational Care Services. In the latter role, Michelle reaches out to pastors and churches to provide education, consultation, and other vital programs to strengthen and support clergy members and parish ministries—services such as ministerial assessment, life coaching, spiritual direction, congregational consultation and mediation, clergy groups, workshops and retreats, and prepare-and-enrich premarital counseling. She also provides services for judicatories in the region, including wraparound in-home support for at-risk youth and their families.
In 2012 PPI recognized her excellence in wedding psychodynamic, family systems, and cognitive behavioral therapy by honoring her with the Clergy and Congregational Care Incentive Award. Michelle says of her eclectic approach to mental health treatment, “Most sessions involve laughter and tears”—both of which are essential elements in promoting mental health.