MMCP Alumni
Below you will find bios and links to esteemed Miracle Mile alumni who are now working in private practice settings. In addition to their interest in narrative therapy, they have each been drawn to particular aspects of lived experience. Feel free to check them out.
Ruangrin (Rin) Aksharanugraha, MFT Associate
Born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, Rin had her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Management and has worked in entertainment media for three years. She now graduated from Pepperdine University, California with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology. She had been working as a pre-licensed Narrative Psychotherapist at MMCP for a year. Rin has already moved back to Thailand and been working to support mental health for Thai people both in the roles of a media practitioner and a psychotherapist. She hopes to combine her experiences in multicultural diversity and creativity into working with different aspects of ethnicity, religions, cultures, and values of clients with an understanding heart.
Tom Andre, LMFT
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Tom did his entire training as a therapist at Miracle Mile. A New Orleanian and incurable dreamer, he started music festivals in Brazil and Colombia before moving to Los Angeles and working for a decade in media and film. He is working with other MMCP alums on a project studying how cultural norms can amplify a sense of failure in individuals. Other major interests include the ways that geographical places and the physical environment affect our sense of identity and well-being, and the life cycle of decisions we make: what leads to them, how we make them, and how we navigate the aftermath. He is in private practice in the Los Angeles area.
Elizabeth Argila, LMFT, JD
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Elizabeth became a therapist after a career as a lawyer in New York City and Los Angeles. Working as both a prosecutor and defense attorney allowed her to witness the resilience of people in even the most difficult circumstances and inspired her to become a therapist. Her background makes her particularly suited to working with clients in high-pressure professional environments. She is also a mother and has an affinity for working with children, adolescents, couples, and families on communication, parenting, and other issues.
Anna Ayeroff, AMFT, APCC
Anna pursued training in narrative therapy at Miracle Mile knowing that she wanted to take a non-pathologizing, anti-oppressive, collaborative, and empowering approach to therapy. Anna is a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (#137749) and Registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (#13308) supervised by Lynne Rosen, LCSW, and meets with individuals and couples navigating the pains of life, with a focus on pelvic, sexual, and chronic pain. Anna is committed to ongoing learning in somatic approaches to bring into her narrative therapy practice, aiming to better invite the stories our bodies hold to be told.
Deb Cehak, RCC (British Columbia)
As a kid, while her sister and dad connected over black and white movies, Deb connected with her dad over therapeutic connections: what did you do with your 8-year-old client who wouldn’t leave her mom’s side after a family tragedy? What would you do if I became addicted to drugs? What happens when a child is taken out of their home? For as long as she remembers, Deb has been interested in therapeutic conversations, human dilemmas, social justice, relationships, connections, and the like. She began her Master of Arts in Counseling at City University in Vancouver, BC in 2004, but her studies were sidelined when her first child was diagnosed with a rare and progressive disease. Fast forward 15 years filled with hospital visits, advocacy, raising five children, and teaching yoga, Deb finally finished her Master’s degree and fulfilled her dream to train as a narrative therapist under David Marsten (LCSW) in Los Angeles. Now back in Canada, Deb practices as a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) in British Columbia, and as a life coach in California.
Chrissy Comlish, LMFT
Chrissy connected with narrative therapy while receiving her MA in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University and joined Miracle Mile Community Practice in 2010. Additionally she trained at the Southern California Counseling Center and launched her private practice in Silverlake in 2016. Chrissy has enjoyed narrative therapy’s creative frame of honoring client's knowledge and unique ways of being. She has particular interest in supporting those after the death of a loved one and hosts groups as well as individual and couples therapy around this topic. Chrissy has interest in working with couples and individuals navigating new parent identity, perfection, worry, and loneliness. Additionally, she supervises masters’ level graduates in their journey to becoming licensed therapists.
Steve Friedlander, LMFT
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Steve had an eye on power and normalizing judgements for as long as he can remember. A free spirit by nature, he began traveling with bands at the tender age of 15. An artist at heart, Steve sees therapy as a deeply creative endeavor through which our innate ability to create or recreate ourselves can be realized. In addition to a love of post structural theory, Steve is equally passionate about Eastern mysticism and non-duality. He has worked in the field of addictions for over a decade, is a licensed addiction counselor and educator and a trained somatic experiencing practitioner. He loves working with individuals and couples of all races, genders and gender identities
Jessica Mariglio, MFT Associate
Jessica received her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pepperdine University. Her unique approach integrates narrative therapy with EMDR and mindfulness with the intention of helping clients to reclaim their freedom from unwelcome effects of trauma and step into a way of being that feels alive and vibrant. Jessica is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and Associate Professional Clinical Counselor working under the supervision of Stephanie Book Koehler, LMFT.
Ashley Murphy, MFT Associate
Estelle Raskin, LMFT
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Estelle holds her experiences as an intern at Miracle Mile near and dear to her heart and mind. It was here that she found a love for narrative therapy and a reinvigorated vision for community. Estelle strives to hold these relationships with her as she talks with folks in private practice. While working with clients she is in ardent pursuit of exposing capitalism’s and individualism’s insidious objectification of people. She is beyond over the moon about how that pursuit radically changes the dominant objective of therapy as we know it. Estelle brings an artfulness to her work whether it’s writing alongside clients on the white wall in her office, listening to their favorite piece of music or poem, or discussing film or television. She is currently thinking about what stands in the way of equitability in the field and the difference between framing therapy as a project for individuals vs. the responsibility of communities.
David Rhone, MFT Associate
David has been providing empathetic and inspirational support to individuals and families from various backgrounds, genders and orientations in South Los Angeles for over 15 years. He has a Master's Degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University, LA. David has a special interest in integrating faith/spirituality and psycho-therapy to empower and support individuals to create better self-narratives; as well as working with people of color to navigate through the power dynamics of white supremacy.
Samantha Schumann, MFT Associate
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Samantha received her Bachelors in Psychology at Sonoma State University and Masters in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University Los Angeles. After her bachelor's degree, she worked as a behavioral therapist for children with autism and was a group leader at Our House Grief Support Center facilitating grief support groups for teens in low-income areas. Samantha received her clinical training at Miracle Mile Community Practice for a period of two years practicing narrative therapy. Currently, she is under an associateship in private practice utilizing narrative theory as well as somatic approaches. Her main focus of work is dealing with grief and self-esteem. Overall, Samantha aims to help clients feel empowered and strengthen their communities. Samantha has a passion for working with diverse populations and helping individuals rewrite their life story for a future that better reflects who they are.
Jade Sealey, MFT Associate
Jade is a Registered Marriage and Family Associate (#138019) supervised by Fountain Yount, LCSW. Jade received her MA in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, Los Angeles as well as her BA in Social Psychology and Theatre from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Through her career as an artist and in her work focused on social justice, she has created compassionate, empowering alliances with colleagues and clients through collaboration, deconstructing problem stories, and creative problem-solving. Narrative therapy resonates with Jade’s commitment to a socially just approach to therapy and her belief that flexibility, creativity, and curiosity are key in supporting others to pursue preferred ways of living. Jade enjoys exploring meaning and values to honor each client without judgment and to help co-author richer, more fulfilling narratives. Contact Jade:jadesealeytherapy@gmail.com (310) 853-3181
Kim Smith, LMFT
“There has to be a better question!” The echo of this declaration sparked Kim’s love of narrative ideas, and her training at Miracle Mile Community Practice solidified her commitment to curiosity, community and a collaborative process that brings context to the problems clients face in everyday life. Kim’s passion lies in her work with women who are actively reclaiming their relationship to their bodies, exploring how measures of society push us to believe that being too much reduces us to not enough. Kim’s office is located in the South Bay. She also meets virtually with clients throughout California.
John Traub, LMFT
John graduated from U.C. Berkeley, and after a career in theatrical entertainment and community relations in New York, earned his M.A. in Clinical Psychology. He did a four-year internship at Miracle Mile, studying Narrative Therapy, seeing clients, mentoring trainees, and hosting Vegetarian Hot Dog Days. Concurrently with his work at MMCP, he facilitated a support group for aging gay men, and co-facilitated a psychotherapy group for women dealing with complicated grief. John is now a licensed MFT whose methods center mostly on working to understand clients’ unique realities, and asking thought-provoking questions that might help clients consider additional possibilities for their lives.
China Ware, MFT Associate
Sarah Warren, LMFT
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The concept of "self-improvement" can be empowering, but intimidating. In a problem-saturated world, it is easy to define ourselves as our problems, instead of looking at them as operating forces to be explored. I advocate for the cathartic power of storytelling. I’m interested in how we come to think how we think, and in what our preferred ways of being and relating might be. I believe in the impact of questions and the ways they can change a life. I seek to expose truths, rather than evaluating or totalizing. My approach is curious, collaborative, engaged, authentic, respectful but not formal, and humorous when appropriate.
Svea Wentzler, MFT Associate
Svea encountered Narrative Therapy in her graduate program, and was lucky enough to find MMCP and it's community to intern with. Coming out of the entertainment industry and art world, always interested in queer representation, she has looked to stories as the way we make sense of the world, ourselves and our possibilities. After training at MMCP, Svea made the hard but necessary decision to move at least a little bit closer to her family, which all remain in Germany where she grew up, so she ended up in Philadelphia.
Eli West, LMFT
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Eli received her M.A. in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University and her B.A. from Barnard College, where she studied art history and visual arts. She is passionate about postmodern theory, art/design, and environmental issues and values thoughtful curiosity, collaboration, and a sense of humor. She is committed to deconstructing power dynamics and taking on systems of oppression that seek to locate the problem within the individual versus in a society ruled by capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, heteronormativity, and ableism (to name a few!). Additionally, she finds identifying the client's values and naming supportive allies to be important aspects of helping individuals realize their preferred self-narratives.
Stefany Zacarias, MS, LPCC
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Stefany has been engaged in narrative work for over 5 years now. In her work as a therapist, Stefany leads with compassion and empathy, knowing that problems live outside of people and not within them—always staying aware and away from pathologizing practices. Stefany has worked with adults, families, and couples while addressing a wide range of concerns, some of which include depression, relational conflict, grief, and sexual identity. Stefany believes in using a collaborative approach, where through conversations and curiosity, clients are given the opportunity to author their own life stories.