Dr. Michaela Hammer, LCSW

Dr. Michaela Hammer, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker who has spent decades helping people navigate major life transitions from adolescence through midlife and beyond. She focuses on the real-world changes that can affect relationships, family roles, friendships, identity, and a person’s place in the community. In her work, she also addresses the pressure of common “transition myths” - ideas about how someone should think, feel, or behave during certain stages of life - and helps clients separate myth from fact so they can move forward with respect, dignity, and renewed purpose.

With advanced training and extensive experience, Dr. Hammer offers memory loss and cognitive functioning assessments and supports clients who are trying to make sense of changes in thinking or memory. She emphasizes that not all memory loss is permanent and aims to provide research, resources, and ongoing support rather than leaving clients to manage uncertainty on their own. Her approach is grounded in the belief that people should not have to face life’s hardships alone.

Dr. Hammer also provides counseling for pet grief and loss, an area she describes as an unmet need, and she recognizes how devastating it can be to lose a four-legged family member. In addition, she has provided counseling to individuals, couples, and families from a wide range of racial, religious, socioeconomic, and educational backgrounds, working with preteens through adults over 100 years old across settings such as homes, schools, retirement communities, nursing homes, hospitals, and office-based care. She has delivered instructional in-services on cultural awareness and aging issues, helped establish memory clinics, and conducted depression and anxiety assessments. As a seasoned therapist with lived experience of profound family loss, she brings steadiness and perspective to clients facing complex transitions and emotional challenges.