Hi, I’m Maleah!

Hi!

I’m Maleah, some people call me Mia.

Ever since I was quite small, I’ve been fascinated and enamored by what it means to be “Human” - from our differences and similarities, our complexities, to our motivations, behaviors, and feelings - I can’t get enough. I am the oldest of 7 siblings, and we all found ourselves in the helping profession in one way or another. I guess it’s no surprise that this is my field and my true passion.

In 2005, I graduated with my doctorate in clinical psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology (or CSPP in Chicago, Illinois.) While in graduate school, I took a job as a mental health worker at the Cook County Jail, one of the largest jails in the country. That’s when my real education began. After graduation, I spent about 5 more years working in a maximum-security prison. It was an incredibly intense and difficult career path for a young woman, but I was always up for a challenge, especially if it was an experience that could help me understand myself and the world just a little bit better. I learned a lot while working in jails and prisons, and it wasn’t long before it was clear that these institutions represented something much bigger…they were a microcosm of our larger society. My mind was blown. It was a life changing experience, but I knew that any extended time in that kind of environment hardens people, and I didn’t want that.  I moved on to working in community mental health systems and outpatient psychotherapy, before finally landing in corporate healthcare. 

Fast forward to the present. The culmination of my experiences has served as a kind of makeshift grounded theory research experiment, and the common story line that keeps emerging is the need for emotional intelligence and language.  As a society, I feel like we have done ourselves a disservice by neglecting the focus on teaching emotional intelligence, and I would like to help change that through Better Humans Consulting.