MacKenzie Stuart, MA, LMFT
Part-Time Faculty
mstuart@wi.edu
Pronouns: she/they

BA Politics and International Relations - Scripps College, 2006
MA Counseling Psychology - John F. Kennedy University, 2011

MacKenzie Stuart is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who works with adults, couples, partners, and families. She specializes in nontraditional relationship structures, including polyamory and other forms of consensual nonmonogamy, as well as chronic depression and suicidality. Her other clinical interests include psychosis, psychopharmacology and drugs, LGBTQIA2-S and GNC/non-binary communities, kink and BDSM practices, and sex work.

MacKenzie prides herself on being person-centered and strengths-based in her clinical work. She enjoys psychodynamic case conceptualization, the enneagram, biofeedback, narrative- and solution-focused interventions, and skills-based therapies including dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and nonviolent communication (NVC).

MacKenzie is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and began her mental health career with Crisis Support Services in 2006. In addition to spending six years on their suicide and crisis hotlines, she served as a member of the community education team and worked as a therapist with displaced workers, older adults, children, and adolescents. She later joined Bay Area Community Services, working in direct service with homeless adults, people managing substance use and mental health challenges, and individuals experiencing psychosis. As a Program Manager for BACS, MacKenzie managed multidisciplinary teams of therapists, social workers, housing specialists, job placement coordinators, nurses, and psychiatrists in full service partnership (FSP) and case management programs. In 2016, she founded Metaphor Therapy, a group practice based in Alameda.

MacKenzie integrates deliberate practice into her classroom activities, trainings, and clinical supervision. So co-facilitates the Sentio University deliberate practice consultation group and supervision residency with Jason Brand, LCSW. MacKenzie supervises trainees and associates at Metaphor Therapy and Sentio Counseling Center, and has also supervised at Horizon Services, Inc. and Crisis Support Services. She is proud to have served a 3-year term as the treasurer of the Peers Envisioning and Engaging in Recovery Services (PEERS) board of directors.

MacKenzie has been passionate about presenting and sharing information since 1999 and brings enthusiasm to the classroom. She began public speaking as an adolescent, creating school-based peer education programs around LGB issues for middle and high schoolers in her community. She continued to speak on panels covering topics including queerness and spirituality during her undergraduate career. At Crisis Support Services, MacKenzie led training sessions for volunteers and associates on agency programs, and spoke in the community about adolescent depression and suicide. She provides trainings on deliberate practice supervision, alternative sexuality, conflict de-escalation, and co-occurring disorders in community and clinical settings, and is well-known for her master’s-level psychopharmacology course offered at institutions throughout California. MacKenzie is a doctoral student in counselor education and supervision at Palo Alto University.

Outside of her professional life, MacKenzie enjoys games and puzzles, epistolary and philatelic activities, artistic pursuits, and football. She loves spending time with her chosen family, especially in her beloved Alameda.

Professional Memberships
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)
Association of Family Therapists of Northern California (AFTNC)
Bay Area Open Minds
International Deliberate Practice Society (IDPS)
Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES)
- Western Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (WACES)
American Psychological Association (APA)
- Society for the Teaching of Psychology (Division 2)
- Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy (Division 29)
Western Psychological Association