Michael Nevarez is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner joining our Roseville location. He first earned a degree in Psychology to pursue his passion for the mind and its abilities. But after graduation, he realized he wanted to be in a career that helps people understand the mind and helps them become the best versions of themselves through the healing process.

As a Nurse Practitioner, Michael believes that connecting with patients and developing a therapeutic alliance is the most important aspect of the provider-patient relationship. His therapeutic style is to guide patients to find their solutions through motivational interviewing and help them become advocates for their mental health. He joins Mindful Health Solutions because of this same culture of patient-first care, as well as a culture of growth and innovation. He strives to learn more to provide the best possible care for his patients.

In patients, Michael Nevarez has a specific interest in helping adolescent and young adult populations. He believes that providing mental health resources to people in the foundation stages of their life can set them up for success in the future. This also gives more time to figure out what works best for each patient to grow with them.

One thing he has an interest in, is the idea of alternative treatments. For patients with treatment-resistant depression, traditional medications aren’t enough to alleviate symptoms. Having access to treatments such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS therapy and esketamine, open a door of opportunities for patients and their providers to find the treatment plan that works best for them.

Palei Alfaro is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who is working at Mindful Health Solutions’ Sacramento clinic as a Psychotherapist. She has a passion for anxiety and depressive disorders.  She feels that these areas are what the typical person encounter more often in life, and she has developed an expansive “coping skills toolbox” to address many of the symptoms associated with the diagnosis.  She is also interested in behavioral areas like ADHD and mood disorders as well.

As a therapist, she describes her personality as positive, outgoing, and overall bubbly. She is genuinely hopeful and happy in working towards each of her patient’s personal successes. With that, she aims to establish safety, security and stability. Meaning she wants each patient to feel safe, and to understand that she provides a non-judgmental and unbiased space for them to build trust and establish a meaningful therapeutic relationship, and to know that they can depend on consistent and thorough treatment. 

Palei Alfaro comes to Mindful Health Solutions because of the cutting edge technology in mental/behavioral health field here. Seeing that, she immediately knew this was the place for her.  For years, she had been following and studying advances in treatment for mental health disorders and have always felt that there should be more access to these treatments.  Treatments such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) therapy and esketamine treatments allow people to have alternatives to traditional medications, and find something that works for them.

DJ believes that as a therapist, they are joining with their patient and letting them lead the session. DJ is there to guide them and assist them when needed, but it is up to the patient to do the work towards recovery and relief. They are trained in several modalities including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotional Transformation Therapy (ETT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). They like facilitating groups and watching the group dynamics help each person in the group to gain something from the interactions. In one-to-one therapy, DJ can help guide a person to reach their goals and realize their potential.  

They first planned to pursue a career in school counseling and began a Master of Education degree program following undergraduate graduation. After meeting with their advisor, they added mental health counseling to their degree. And it was while working on an internship that they realized their passion and calling was in mental health treatment, and that was what they were meant to do.  

Their therapeutic approach aligns with Mindful Health Solutions, where patients have access to several different treatments and an integrated, comprehensive approach to finding relief and recovery from their struggles, whether through psychotherapy and different modalities or with medication assistance or an interventional treatment such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) or esketamine nasal spray.