Finding the right help can make the difference.  

We’ve all struggled with not knowing what barriers are keeping us from fulfillment, and how to go about discovering the right tools and means of achieving the happiness we seek, whether we’re single or in a committed relationship.

You weren't taught how to handle your difficult emotions or unwanted behaviors, and you may not have had role models to help show you the way. You've probably heard so much conflicting advice about what to do from friends, supposed experts in the media, or your own family members, that it's no wonder you haven't yet found the right advice or tools for change that ring true for you.  Sifting through this fog of advice on your own is a tremendous challenge for anyone.  You are definitely not alone. Many individuals struggle their whole lives without finding the tools that lead them to satisfying lives and relationships.

I would love to help you reach your goals. I specialize in helping you achieve your goals by finding your deepest values and highest priorities, the compelling reasons for change, the reasons you've been blocked from change, and the personalized tools and strategies to create the enduring changes and enhanced quality of life you're seeking. 


I offer numerous processes that can help you:

  • Discover the purpose of your emotional challenges and use negative feelings and moods to increase motivation and emotional resiliency.
  • Find acceptance and compassion for yourself.
  • Increase your self-confidence.
  • Reduce anxiety to where it becomes your ally and not your tormentor.
  • Free yourself from the grips of depression.
  • Change negative habitual behaviors.
  • Alter unsatisfying relationship patterns to deepen intimacy and relationship satisfaction and fun.


Counseling can be the answer you’ve been seeking, helping you break free from destructive patterns that have kept you from developing yourself and your life in ways that serve you now and in the future.  I offer processes that quickly get to the heart of the issues you're struggling with, but that also respect the pace of change that's right for you.  You will come to understand yourself in ways you have not experienced before. 

We all have one foot on the shore and one in the water when it comes to change.  Ambivalence is natural, and can be brought to the surface and resolved.  

Through new understanding of yourself and the reasons you've been held back from effective change efforts thus far, you can let go of emotional pain and utilize tools to discover and make real progress toward what you most want from yourself, your life, and your relationships.   


What you can do now:

1. Click to book an appointment now through my online appointment calendar.  I will call you prior to the appointment to discuss your goals and concerns, and send you paperwork to speed the assessment process.​​

2. Call (916) 549-5772 to schedule an appointment or to discuss any questions you have about my services and the work we can do to help you make the changes you seek.  An initial 20 minute phone consultation is always free. You can also email me here.

3. If you are not ready to seek or inquire about counseling yet, you can download my free report,
Is Happiness a Choice? And What Role Does Fear Play?  Or you can browse my Articles for more information on mental health and relationship topics and to see how we might be a good fit.

I look forward to supporting your success.

🔝

Your emotional well being is enormously important - and complex. Making changes on your own to accept and improve yourself, or find peace of mind and self-confidence, can be challenging. Yet with the right guide and the right processes, change can be significant and rapid.  

Your emotional pain and the frustrations to alter your life circumstances, though greatly unwanted, have deep emotional meaning to parts of your mind that are difficult to access by yourself. Finding that meaning is the key to motivating and pursuing lasting change that heals emotional wounds and enables greater emotional freedom and reliable experiences with happiness and fulfillment.

I work with adults like you to help you make the changes in your life most important to you, changes that may have proven resistant even to thoughtful plans and heartfelt intentions.  

Perhaps you're ready to discover and transform what's behind the roadblocks to making the lasting changes you seek. You can make rapid progress toward the emotional and life goals that most energize you.​​

You are good enough as you are, and can change for the better. Call (916) 549-5772 for a free 20-minute consultation.

Steve Mackey is a cognitive-behavioral, exposure based, and motivational coherence-based mental health counselor and psychotherapist who offers individual  counseling and psychotherapy services for issues related to anxiety, depression, fear, mood problems, low self-esteem, anger, habits, and relationship struggles  for adults at 2020 Capitol Ave., Suite 5,  Sacramento, CA 95811, serving the Sacramento, Elk Grove, Folsom, Roseville, Citrus Heights, Orangevale, Carmichael, Davis, and Galt communities. For more information contact  916 549-5772.

The information provided on this website is not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Visiting this website does not constitute a therapist-client relationship.  Information found on the internet is not a substitute for individualized evaluation and treatment by a mental health professional.  All written and visual materials are the exclusive copyright of Steve Mackey, © 2011-2016.

Suicide & Crisis Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

When you're feeling anxious, overwhelmed, adrift, healing is possible. You can feel and get better in ways that last. Don't struggle alone. Compassionate, competent counseling psychotherapy for emotional well-being in Sacramento is a call or click away.

Contact me by email 

                 (916) 549-5772
       steve@stevemackeylmft.com

  ​The Art and Science of Change

I'm Steve Mackey, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 1997 with over 30 years in the mental and behavioral health fields. My aim is to help reach your goals by evoking and transforming your natural ambivalence to personal change, unleashing the motivation needed to reduce or eliminate emotional challenges and turmoil, and to pursue your goals at a pace and manner that's right for you.  

​I offer neuroscience and psychotherapy research-based change processes with proven results that can lead to new self-awareness and new motivation to accept yourself as you are, change what needs to be changed to reach your goals, and generate more happiness and an improved quality of life.  ​

I work with your brain's negative prediction, association, and memory patterns, the obstacles that create fear, anxiety, depression, shame, guilt, loneliness, destructive habits, and anger, but paradoxically, the pathways to growth and happiness. These patterns, when understood and altered skillfully with a coherent action plan based on your deepest desires, can trigger the motivation and progress toward goals that strengthen your emotional resilience and control and liberate more lasting states of happiness and satisfaction.

Together, we'll discover your unique and naturally conflicting motivations for both safety and growth that can block you from pursuing your highest priorities and keep you stuck in dissatisfaction or worse.  This new awareness clarifies your most closely held values and desires, fostering self-compassion, inner harmony, peace of mind, and unlocks the energy to pursue what you want most.  

I use research verified processes of change to help you experience important parts of yourself that are hidden, keeping you stuck from finding the solutions to the struggles you've been facing. Once uncovered, these obstacles reveal the tasks needed to free yourself from their influence, creating deep, lasting change felt throughout your mind and body.  

My Midtown Sacramento office is a place where you'll feel accepted, supported, and safe, and gently encouraged, also, to deepen your awareness in order to uncover and resolve inner conflicts and fears undermining your development, success and happiness. You can expand capacities you may not yet recognize you have.

A Happier You Awaits.  

Midtown Sacramento Office 2020 Capitol Ave, Suite 5, Sacramento, CA 95811

Free 2-hour street parking on Capitol Ave. from 20th St. and up.

Office Hours: Tuesday - Thursday.  Evening Appointments Available Click here for Directions


Steve Mackey, LMFT  
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

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What Others Are Saying

"Steve, thank you for helping me regain my life back, and be able to be truly in the moment living my life. I feel free. I feel like I am actually alive. I can never thank you enough."
Client name withheld due to privacy laws

"Thanks so much Steve! This was pure gold for me.  The work with you has enhanced the quality of my life."
Client name withheld due to privacy laws


"Mr. Mackey has become a trusted colleague. I suggest him most highly to patients when my practice is too full.  And I would recommend a dear friend or family member to him.  Mr. Mackey's professional skills impressed me so much that I asked him to join me in teaching the CBT course to the psychiatric residents at the University of California-Davis.  I cannot recommend someone more highly than Mr. Steve Mackey, LMFT.  He continues to impress me with his calm demeanor, his compassionate wisdom, excellent clinical skills, and good humor." 
Leigh Harrington, M.D., former chief resident of psychiatry, Stanford University.