
About
Dr. Mikhila Wildey
Dr. Mikhila Wildey is a psychologist, researcher, and associate professor of psychology at Grand Valley State University, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The same underlying expertise shows up in three places in her work: advising business leaders, speaking to organizations and groups, and a specialized couples therapy practice.
That expertise was built first in the clinic, not the classroom. After earning her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Michigan State University, she worked full time as a therapist before joining the faculty at Grand Valley State University, where she now holds tenure. She teaches courses including Adult Psychopathology, Behavior Modification, and the department's practicum course, and mentors students through their independent research. Her own research focuses on romantic relationships, and she received a university teaching award in 2023. Clinical work, teaching, and research have always been intertwined throughout her career, each one sharpening the others, and she remains active in all three communities to stay current with emerging findings and best practices
In 2019, her clinical work grew into Resilient Relationships, LLC, now the umbrella for everything she does. Within it, she maintains a deliberately small couples therapy caseload, drawing on Emotionally Focused Therapy and other evidence-based approaches, with particular attention to building lasting emotional safety between partners.
It was outside the therapy room, though, where she first noticed how far this expertise could travel. Her husband owns a family business, and years of proximity to it revealed the same patterns she studies professionally, the unexamined assumptions, the recurring conflict, now playing out between business partners and leadership teams instead of couples. That recognition is what eventually led her to begin advising business leaders directly.
Dr. Wildey was born in the U.S. to Indian immigrant parents and is proud of her cultural heritage. She lives in Grand Rapids with her husband and two children.