Our Providers
Michael Allen, MD Holistic/Integrative Pediatrician
Linda Lazar Allen, CAMT Craniosacral Therapy and Emotional Healing
Susan Johnson, MD Developmental Pediatrics
William Bento,PhD Transpersonal Clinical Psychologist
Dale Robinson, Eurythmy
Suzel Deer RN BSN, NAET Practitioner
Tammy Hayden, Medical Assistant and Front Office Manager
Michael Allen, MD
Board Certified in Pediatrics
Board Certified in Holistic/Integrative Medicine
Board Certified in Anthroposophic Medicine
Holistic, Anthroposophic and Conventional Pediatrics
Dr. Michael Allen has been practicing Pediatrics in Sacramento since 1992. The importance of looking beyond conventional medicine, to healing the whole person was first imparted on Dr. Allen in medical school at the University of Arizona, where he studied with Dr. Andrew Weil.
The need to look beyond conventional medicine came again to Dr Allen through his best teacher, his son Kieran, who was born with cerebral palsy and seizures. When western medicine proved ineffective alone, Dr Allen began learning complementary and alternative treatment modalities to help his son – and they greatly improved his quality of life. He soon discovered that the patients in his practice also asked for and benefited from these new techniques and practices. Kieran unexpectedly died in August of 2003, two weeks after his seventh birthday.
Understanding the gift that his son’s life and death brought to him, Dr Allen was motivated to begin a comprehensive study of Holistic medicine, and later became Board Certified as a Holistic Physician. It was also during this time that he realized that he needed to take time to heal and be with his family. The time was well spent, as Dr Allen and his family emerged stronger, healthier and happier because of their experience. During this sabbatical, Dr. Allen also began his formal training in Anthroposophic Medicine, a form of holistic medicine. He is now one of only two pediatricians in the United States to be Board Certified in Anthroposophic Medicine.
In 2009 he opened the Center for Living Health, a dream he and his wife Linda, who practices craniosacral therapy at the Center, have held for many years. Dr Allen is very excited about practicing medicine and serving in the capacity as a healer once again, and would like to thank all of his former patients who have waited patiently for his return. He feels continually blessed by the light of his daughter Morgan, who attends Sacramento Waldorf School, and all that his son Kieran taught him.
Dr Allen’s Training includes:
Medical School: University of Arizona
Pediatric Internship and Residency: Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Board Certified in Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics
Board Certified Holistic Medicine, National Board of Integrative Medicine
Board Certified Anthroposophic Medicine, Physicians Association of Anthroposophic Medicine
Consiousness Studies with Dennis Klocek -Rudolf Steiner College
Rudolf Steiner College – selective classes of the Foundation Year & Teacher Training Year
Chikly Institute: Heart Centered Therapy
Upledger Institute: Craniosacral Therapy
John Barnes: Myofascial Release
Linda Lazar Allen
Craniosacral Therapy and Emotional Healing
Linda works with adults and children, and is known for her nurturing touch and ability to discover and gently release tension and trauma in the tissues that can cause pain and dysfunction, allowing the entire body to relax and self-correct. She also specializes in working with emotional difficulties such as grief/loss, depression, anxiety and stress.
A journey of growth and healing led Linda to bring her gift of compassionate healing into practice.
The birth of her son Kieran and his diagnosis of cerebral palsy and seizures awoke her and husband Michael, a holistic pediatrician, to a path of self-discovery. They turned to craniosacral therapy (CST) when western medicine failed to help their son. After witnessing CST’s profound effects, she took a class to help her son, only to realize that this was her heart work.
Linda’s inner journey continued with the death of her son at age seven. She once again witnessed how powerful and healing these therapies in her own healing and grief, notably the depth of healing reached through Heart Centered Therapy (HCT). She now integrates HCT into many of her sessions as a tool to gently help identify and transform the emotional component of disease in the body, without reliving the trauma. She is a teaching assistant for HCT workshops around the country.
Linda brings to her sessions the love and knowledge that this work can make a difference, and honors the memory of her son’s journey through her practice. Sessions with Linda help can stimulate healing life forces, restore balance and harmony, and address constitutional problems.
“I wanted to be able to share the power of this work with others. To help others feel comfortable in their bodies, and to help not only release the traumas that we hold, but to reveal the gifts within so we can understand why it had to happen.”
The Center for Living Health is the culmination of a dream Linda and her husband have been holding since their son led them outside the box of conventional medicine. She credits her son and her daughter Morgan, a student at Sacramento Waldorf School, whose light and wisdom blesses her daily, as her greatest teachers.
Training includes:
Bachelor of Arts, USC
Acupressure Institute of Berkeley: Certified Acupressure Therapist, Advanced Training Specialization Certification in Emotional Balancing
PAAM International Anthropsophic Medical Training Program
Chikly Institute: Heart Centered Therapy, Advanced level training in Brain and Neurosystem, Lymphatic Drainage
Upledger Institute: Craniosacral Therapy
John Barnes: Myofascial Release
Consciousness Studies with Dennis Klocek -Rudolf Steiner College
Rudolf Steiner College – classes in Foundation Year Training
Along with Linda’s formal training, she has also attended numerous classes and workshops on Neurologically Managing Sensory Processing Disorders, Sensory Integration, Energy Medicine, Flower Essences and Essential Oils. She incorporates elements of these therapies into her sessions as needed.
Susan R. Johnson, MD, FAAP
Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics
Dr. Johnson is a Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrician with a private practice in Colfax, California. She will be seeing patients at the Center of Living Health for follow-up appointments. She trained in Switzerland in Anthroposophical medicine, is a certified Waldorf teacher, and spent a year training in sensory-motor integration at Rudolf Steiner College.
As a Mother, certified Waldorf teacher, and a Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrician for more than 23 years, Susan Johnson brings a wealth of knowledge to her practice. After graduating from Carleton College and Northwestern University Medical School, she completed a 3-year pediatric residency at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and a 3-year fellowship in Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics at U.C.S.F.
During her fellowship years, she directed the Early Childhood Clinic and evaluated children with Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Asperger Syndrome, expressive and receptive language delays, and Attention Deficit Disorder. She had extensive rotations managing children in Behavior clinic, School-age clinic and identifying children with various learning challenges during their week long Comprehensive Learning Evaluations. She completed a year rotation in child psychiatry, serving on the psych-laison service along with child psychiatry residents, and spent 3 years doing supervised family therapy, individual and group child therapy sessions, and child sand-tray therapy.
After her fellowship, she became an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF and Co-director of the Pediatric Obesity Clinic and Shapedown program with Laurel Mellin M.A. , and also served for 7 years with the San Francisco Unified School District as their Physician Director at Golden Gate School Health Center evaluating hundreds of children, from preschool through 8th grade, that were having challenges in behavior and learning at school.
After her son was born with sensory integration and processing challenges, she spent 3 years becoming a certified Waldorf Teacher and an additional year of training in sensory integration and remedial support (Extra Lesson) at Rudolf Steiner College. Dr. Johnson has participated in numerous seminars and workshops exploring various forms of movement therapies such as Therapeutic Eurythmy, Parelli and therapeutic horseback riding, Spacial Dynamics, Brain Gym, HANDLE, and Bal-a-vis-x.
She also completed Marshall Rosenberg’s International training in Compassionate Communication, Total Biology 1 with Gilbert Renaud, and traveled to the Lukas Clinic in Arlesheim, Switzerland, to study Anthroposophical Medicine, a more holistic approach to medical care and treatment for children and adults.
She feels that all of these experiences have taught her that children with auditory and visual processing problems need movement therapies that strengthen their vestibular/balance system. Children who have difficulties with sitting still, paying attention, and visual processing/visual memory skills, that impact reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics, need movement therapies that strengthen proprioception. There are also non-manipulative cranial therapies and nutritional recommendations and modifications in the home and school environments that can decrease the over stimulation of the child’s sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system and promote integration and healing of children’s neurological pathways.
William Bento, PhD
Transpersonal Clinical Psychologist
The restoration of trust in one’s destiny, which can so easily be lost in the crises of modern day life, is for Dr. Bento, a primary task in both his psychotherapeutic and astrosophical work. Dr. Bento’s training at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and the Lomi Psychotherapy Clinic, as well as his 33 years of counseling adolescents,adults, couples, and families, has prepared him to address a wide array of human issues.
He has also spent over three decades as an adult educator of spiritual science, and as a consultant to organizations in the human services and educational fields. Dr. Bento has integrated essential aspects of transpersonal psychology into an Anthroposophical orientation to psychology that he has been pioneering for the last decade under the title “Psychosophy”— Soul Wisdom. Rudiments of this spiritual perspective to pastoral care can be found in his book, Lifting the Veil of Mental Illness. His recently published book, A Somatic Psychodiagnostic Approach To Personality Disorders demonstrates hisinnovative approach to psychology.
Dale Robinson
Certified Therapeutic Eurythmist
Suzel Deer, RN
NAET and Nutritional Counseling
Suzel a registered nurse with a B.S. from the University of Virginia. She holds a massage license and nutrition certificates. She is a Reiki and N.A.E.T. practitioner, and has studied many disciplines related to health. In recent years, she has devoted her time to working with allergy and nutritional challenges and focusing on re-teaching the body to do jobs it has forgotten. She also teach nutritional classes.
Tammy Hayden
Medical Assistant/Office Manager