Michael Dekker, DO
In 1994, my family uprooted to rural Kansas—a jarring leap from city pulse to endless fields that hit like a cultural earthquake. Shawnee Mission Northwest High School became my anchor, where I honed Japanese in the Center for International Studies, studied geopolitics under the sharp-eyed Thomas McBride, and even jetted to Kurashiki, Japan, as a student ambassador in 1996. Dreams burned bright: I set sail for the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Then mononucleosis sidelined me, medically discharging me back to Phoenix. Undeterred, I pieced together credits at Glendale Community College, then chased reinvention in Detroit for two raw years—learning to live, lose, and rebuild at Schoolcraft College, completing 2 years’ worth of credits with honors.
By 2002, Arizona called me home. Transferring to Arizona University in Tucson as a junior, I bulldozed through prerequisites and earned acceptances to top medical schools. I chose Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, where the fire for addiction medicine ignited. Amid the grind—and yes, my own hellish detours, from personal reckonings to the unsparing demands of training—I co-founded the Health Professional Students for Substance Abuse Training (HPS-SAT) with Brown University's David Lewis, M.D. It was my first taste of turning pain into purpose: equipping future healers to spot and stop the cycle before it claimed more lives having seen addiction literally kill people in Chicago during the 80s. In 2009, I emerged an osteopathic physician, honors in hand, ready for the marathon ahead.
What totaled 11 relentless years of forging expertise: a general psychiatry residency at Banner Good Samaritan in Phoenix (2009–2013), where the chaos of human suffering inside a hospital became my classroom; an addiction psychiatry fellowship at Boston University (2013–2014) under titans like John A. Renner, M.D., and Joji Suzuki, M.D., who taught me that addiction isn't a moral failing—it's a brain hijacking condition treatable with precision and compassion. Post-fellowship, I poured that into the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, healing combat veterans in the Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (SARRTP), witnessing firsthand how structured care could rewrite trauma's ending.
Today at Arizona Professionals Health Program, I have the privilege of working side-by-side with my longtime colleague and academic equal, Monica Faria, M.D. We first met as co-residents at Banner Good Samaritan in 2009, and I have admired her brilliance and compassion ever since. A UCLA-trained, double board-certified psychiatrist and addiction psychiatrist, Dr. Faria founded the Arizona Professionals Health Program in 2018.
Together, we lead a program built on mutual respect, shared vision, and an unwavering commitment to helping licensed professionals reclaim their lives and careers.Together, we're a powerhouse: delivering forensic-level evaluations for fitness-for-duty, substance use disorders, mental health challenges, behavioral dysregulation, FAA HIMS assessments, and board-mandated reviews. Whether you're a surgeon facing opioid shadows, a pilot navigating FAA scrutiny, or an attorney battling burnout's grip, we craft tailored paths to restoration — independent, confidential, and board-compliant. Our model means no insurance red tape: just 60–90-minute deep dives, deep expertise, broad access, and outcomes that safeguard your license while reigniting your fire.
"A very remarkable individual, who took the extra time to listen and was sincere in every word he speaks. Words can't describe how he made a difference in my life, when I would leave his office, every thing he said to me just made sense, and I had a more positive outlook in my life."
