Care to Change welcomes Michael Spencer to our team!
Since the mid-1980s, Mike has combined ministry with counseling for families, couples, and individuals of all ages, using his own life experiences to inform the guidance he provides. For example, having experienced the changes and challenges a marriage endures across decades, he is able to walk couples through the changes needed to remain faithful in a culture that tends to overvalue relational intimacy and undervalue marriage.
While he has worked with families, couples, and individuals of all ages, Mike has a particular interest in helping people who have experienced complex developmental trauma, such as adoptive families and those who are currently in foster care. He also enjoys working with men who grapple with addictive thinking and behaviors, anxiety, and depression, as well as younger men who struggle to reconcile their life experiences with their faith. Mike also enjoys counseling church leaders.
He received his Bachelor’s degree from Anderson University and went on to receive Master’s degrees in Counseling and Divinity from Biblical Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Mike worked with a group of churches to open a counseling center, helping with communications challenges, depression, anger, anxiety, parenting skills, addiction, and OCD. In 2013, after adopting two children, Mike received training from Texas Christian University in Trust Based Relational Intervention. He is a certified TBRI Practitioner and Educator and a Prepare/Enrich marriage facilitator.
Mike and his wife, Kathy, were college sweethearts who married in 1984. They have five children. The couple helped to plant a church in the Irvington area of Indianapolis, where Mike serves as an elder and works with the men’s ministry and the advocate team for community care groups. Email Michael