Emilie Michael, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, FNP-C

Offering clinically excellent integrative psychiatric care anchored in faith.

Bridging the Gap 

Emilie Michael is a dual-certified Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) who provides comprehensive psychiatric medication management within a faith-based, whole-person framework. Her approach rejects the modern divide between physical and spiritual health, focusing on care that is grounded in evidence-based medicine, while remaining attentive to each individual’s values, faith, and life context, effectively treating the whole person. She is partnering with Restored Life Counseling to support patients whose mental health concerns require medical management with a focus on biological, psychological, relational, and spiritual factors. 

Clinical Journey

Emilie began her career as a registered nurse in a level 1 trauma center pediatric emergency department, where she gained extensive experience caring for patients in high stress and high acuity situations. She became intimately aware of the immediate fragility of life. She later practiced as a primary care provider as a FNP, and began noticing the troubling pattern of fragmentation of mental health care. In the current broken medical system, mental health symptoms were being treated in isolation, considered to be separate from medical conditions, and often personal values and beliefs were not considered as part of the treatment plan. This led her to pursue specialized training in psychiatry, allowing her to offer more integrated and comprehensive care, as she believes true health and well-being requires careful management of biology, psychology, and faith. 

Philosophy of Care

Mental health struggles are never purely biological or purely spiritual. They are multifactorial and benefit from an integrated approach. Medication should be considered one tool among many. Medications can be helpful for stabilizing symptoms and improving functioning, but care is more effective when medications are combined with therapy, healthy relationships, and supportive routines. Medications help to regulate various neurotransmitters in the brain that the real work of restoration, through therapy, prayer, and community building, can successfully occur. 

Scope of Practice

Emilie specializes in psychiatric evaluations and medication management, with special attention to organic and biologic (medical) contributors to mental health symptoms. Services may include: 

• Comprehensive psychiatric assessments 
• Medication management for mood, anxiety, trauma-related, and other psychiatric conditions
• Review of medical history and current medications
• Basic and advanced laboratory evaluation when clinically appropriate (including thyroid, vitamin deficiencies, and other relevant markers)
• Collaboration with counselors and therapists to ensure coordinated care

Medication Management

Emilie prioritizes shared clinical decision making and conservative and thoughtful prescribing habits with ongoing reassessments of benefits and side effects. This may mean working toward simplifying medication regimens, reducing dosages, optimizing current medications, or switching to alternative agents. Her ultimate goal is to address mental health symptoms thoughtfully and safely, while considering the full picture of a patient’s physical health and lifestyle. 

Collaboration With Therapists

Emilie values collaboration and open communication with counselors at Restored Life Counseling. Therapists and counselors serve as the expert in your story, providing depth in understanding of the emotional process, while Emilie focuses more closely on medical and psychiatric stabilization. By maintaining an open line of communication, the team is able to support consistent goals and continuity of care. 

Faith & Practice: The Ministry of Presence

The foundation of Emilie’s clinical work is her Christian faith, which shapes her belief in the dignity and complexity of each individual person. She accepted Christ at a young age, though, like many, has walked through various seasons of life, and as such, recognizes and respects that patients vary in how they wish faith to be incorporated into care. In the exam room, this often looks like the “ministry of presence.” Sometimes, the most powerful intervention is not a prescription, but being truly heard by another human being. When desired by the patient, this may also include discussion of spiritual practices, values, and the role of faith in coping and healing. 

Emilie’s primary role within Restored Life Counseling is to provide clinically excellent care, while remaining attentive to the spiritual and relational dimensions within each individual’s life and healing process. At Restored Life, we will not just manage symptoms, we will look for true restoration. 

Credentials & Education

• Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)
• Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)
• Registered Nurse (RN) – Emergency & Trauma Experience
• Licensed in: AZ – 289399

Areas of Focus

• Anxiety & Depression Management
• Medication Management
• Holistic Assessment and evaluation of organic causes of symptoms (thyroid & vitamin deficiencies)
• Faith-Integrated Psychiatry