MIKE HAARER, PhD, LMHC

Mike Haarer is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of Indiana. He has worked in the field of adolescent residential treatment since 2004 when he began working with youth in court-ordered residential treatment. In 2012, he and a team launched Compass Rose Academy as a new private division of Josiah White’s, an organization with a rich history dating back to its founding in 1850.

Mike earned a BA and MA in Counseling from Grace College in Winona Lake, IN as well as a PhD in Counselor Education & Supervision from Regent University. A focus of his doctoral studies included research in the area of gender studies as well as in the intersection of faith and sexuality.

Mike studied under Psychologist and Author Dr. John Townsend, completing three years of his Counselor Training Program, concentrated on emotion-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy. Mike currently serves as an adjunct professor at Concordia University Irvine’s Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling. He has enjoyed teaching Ethics, Foundations of Mental Health Counseling, Research and Internship Supervision as well as leading process groups for incoming Masters in Counseling students.

Mike chaired the Best Practices Committee for NATSAP from January 2019 – January 2023. Mike enjoys facilitating panel presentations at NATSAP Annual Conferences, attending and supporting the NATSAP Leadership Summit, and also presents on a variety of topics at local, regional, and national conferences. He trains residential staff on topics such as trauma informed care, attachment, and the Teaching Family Model.

Mike has experience serving on boards including his current role on the board of the local United Fund in Wabash, IN. In that role, he enjoys helping to bring light to other non-profit and mission-oriented agencies serving those in his local community.

Mike has served as the Executive Director of Compass Rose Academy since its founding in 2012 and lives on the Wabash, Indiana campus along with his wife, Emily, and three daughters, Corabelle, Olivia, and Regina. Beginning in 2020, Compass Rose Academy built a new campus which allowed them to update their facilities and also expand their enrollment capacity. Their beautiful new campus surrounded by Indiana farmland earned statewide recognition for its architecture and design, receiving the AIA Citation Award for New Construction in projects over $5 million.