Living Self Therapy — Life coach in Washington, DC

I’ve been working with Michael and I’m truly grateful for his support and guidance. He creates a safe, non-judgmental space where I feel heard and understood, and he has helped me gain clarity and make real progress in areas I had been stuck in for a long time. His approach is thoughtful, compassionate, and grounded in real insight. I always leave our sessions feeling more balanced and equipped to handle whatever’s next.

I came to Michael with quite an unusual request: how to cope with... happiness. The feeling was so new and so immense it started to burn me out on the inside and a mere idea of losing it put my mind to a shock mode. And Michael helped me to re-acquire myself in that river. To be honest, I was surprised with the techniques we used during our sessions, but the depth of his understanding of my state, emotions and feelings convinced me to trust him. And that trust put everything he taught me to work. I was able to get back the control over my life without losing the joy I was experiencing. And now I get back to the simple but powerful exercises Michael handed me over and they work over and over again. I cannot recommend Michael's services more. Schedule a session with him and get ready for your new better, deeper, more confident self.

I was fortunate to work with Michael as my therapist, and would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for his help, authentic human interest towards my problems and his strong presence which I could feel even when working online.

This is my best experience with a therapist. Every session reveals something new. Michael is a great professional and a very experienced therapist, open-minded with a unique view of the world and people.I highly recommend him.

Working with and knowing Michael has been deeply touching and transformative. Before I started working with Michael, I often felt unfulfilled, confused, depressed, and blocked. Now, thanks to my work with Michael and his warm companionship, I feel I have been shepherded to renewed, open spring pastures. Michael is the most skilled, inspiring, and wise therapist/facilitator that I’ve ever worked with. His depth of study across spiritual traditions, therapy schools and modalities, science and nature, and mind-body practices has been incredibly inspiring and enlivening. And, perhaps more importantly, he is not just learned but has practiced diligently and, thus, come to embody a grounded, powerful whole. Working with Michael has spurred welcome changes and new ideas throughout my life. Professionally, he’s helped me find and set off upon a career path that feels like my heart’s calling. Creatively, he’s helped me work through many thoughts and feelings that hindered my enjoyment of music, writing, and life. Relationally, he’s helped me settle into and develop skills to foster ever-deeper, evermore-spacious relationships (with others and myself). Spiritually, he’s taught me practices that I consider my lifeblood. He operates on many planes sensitively, skillfully, practically, magically, and beautifully. I feel unbelievably lucky to have Michael in my life as therapist, teacher, and friend.

My experience with Living Self Therapy for the past couple years has been great on multiple levels. For one, I felt support and objectivity. More recently, I found shadow work and dream analysis to be quite profound. I can say I would not have made as much progress in my self-development journey without Michael Yoshpa. Also, as an MSW student, I find his expertise extremely helpful.

I am a child and adolescent therapist: Michael has been my coach and mentor for the past two years. Meeting Michael and becoming his client has been a fundamental experience for me, as I was able to turn off some of the internal processes that were destroying my core and slowly learned to see my real strengths. Michael is fearless, brutally honest and no-nonsense in his work, but he is also delicate and everpresent. His work is supported by multiple formats: meditation, tai-chi, nature observation, somatic exercise, spiritual literature, and so on. But the end result for me is that our work helps me feel more alive and real, more connected to the ground and the trees, more at peace with myself and with the daily chaos in the world. There were a number of times when Michael spoke with me during a personal crisis happening head-on and helped me find ways out of it in the same hour. Thank you, Michael.

During my sessions with Michael I feel that I exist and I am welcome. For me this is the most important experience that gives a person energy to live, it is like a foundation on which a strong building can be erected. And when it is not there, no matter what we build on, everything collapses over time. Next to Michael I gradually regain my right to be MYSELF. I am sincerely grateful that we met, and for the fact that you exist, Michael!

It’s hard to put into words how immensely Michael has helped me (but I’ll try!). When we met, I felt completely lost. I had just ended a long, unhealthy relationship and was struggling with the stress of a corporate career I hated. I was often anxious, started my days with a sense of dread, and felt totally cut off from any creativity or joy. I found Michael while seeking a “life coach” who could help me figure out what to do with my life. As he was quick to warn me, he’s not a traditional life coach - he wasn’t going to use a cookie-cutter approach with quizzes, assessments, and goals to tell me what to do. Instead, he would guide me to connect with myself so that I could find the answers that were already inside of me. Before working together, I didn’t even realize that there was an inner self I was disconnected from. Seeing Michael’s face each time I logged onto Zoom would immediately make me feel safe and calm. He has a comforting, warm, and loving energy and an absolutely contagious smile. Each session was tailored to my specific needs and whatever emotion or thought I was struggling with at the time. We used various techniques such as guided meditations, dream interpretation, comforting my inner child, confronting my inner critic, or qi gong healing. By the end of each session, I always felt a state of peace and joy. The longer we worked together, the more I was able to cultivate this feeling on my own. With Michael’s help, I connected with myself in a way that I had never really felt, or at least not since early childhood. This manifested in so many awesome ways: deciding to take a break from my job, beginning a new spiritual journey, making new friends, letting go of the past and forgiving people that hurt me, creating art, trying new hobbies, and increasing my compassion for myself and others. I am forever grateful to Michael for starting me on this new life path and giving me tools that I can use throughout the rest of my life to connect to myself, embrace the peaceful energy of nature, and deepen my spiritual practice. I highly recommend Michael to anyone seeking help with their emotional, mental, or spiritual health!

. When I found out about Michael's dream class, I was intrigued. After the first session, I went home feeling physically energized and lighter. I also experienced an individual session with Michael. His depth of knowledge and vast resources allowed me to release a long-standing fear that kept me from moving forward with confidence. His approach is supportive and non-judgmental which allowed me to be more open with my feelings. I felt safe and respected in my vulnerability. Thank you Michael! I highly recommend Michael and will continue to seek his assistance as I need it.