Michelle Zechner

Michelle Zechner, PhD, LSW, CPRP is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers-SHP, Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Programs and has focused her career on health and wellness, especially for people living with psychiatric conditions and their supporters.  She has worked in a variety of community and inpatient settings, including state psychiatric hospitals, outpatient mental health services, and nursing homes.  In her current role she provides extensive training and consultation to mental health programs on the  implementation of evidence-based psychosocial practices, developing and testing health and wellness promotion interventions in community settings, teaching students, training diverse mental health staff on best practices, and conducting research. Dr. Zechner’s research includes the development of programs focused on multi-domain wellness for people with mental health conditions, self-care of caregivers of persons with mental health conditions, mindful movement interventions, use of peer health coaching strategies, and aging well for people living with mental health conditions. She has co-authored publications on wellness, development of state hospital wellness interventions and health promotion, and has presented her work at local, national and international conferences. She is passionate about helping all people improve their mental and physical health.