Presley Gerber's sober coach revealed for first time: He's 'going through hell' since dropping off longtime client to rehab where model died... now new details of his past are divulged

The sober coach who took Presley Gerber to the Santa Monica home where the model died of a suspected overdose is Michael Healy, a recovering addict who has dropped out of sight in the weeks since, friends tell the Daily Mail.

'He's going through hell,' said Dirk Eldredge, his mentor and former employer.

Eldredge and others close to Healy, 34, said he has been holed up in his Marina del Rey, California, apartment, mourning the 27-year-old he coached and who, as Eldredge told it, had become his close friend.

Gerber died on September 20, hours after Healy accompanied him to check into the sober house Resolutions Living.

'Mike brought him to Resolutions and had absolutely zero control over what happened after,' Eldredge told the Daily Mail.

Healy has not responded to requests for comment. Friends who know him socially or through work said they have not heard from him in weeks, and last Wednesday, he was seen for the first time grabbing coffee in Los Angeles.

'He has been taking time for himself, given everything that happened,' said Theren Raufmann, founder and CEO of The Little Beach House, a men's sober living home in Venice Beach that lists Healy as a 'recovery coach and case manager.'

Citing anonymous sources, TMZ reported that Gerber's sober coach, whom it did not name, called Resolutions and told staff that Gerber was high before leaving him there. 

TMZ also reported that Gerber's family did not know about or approve the choice of facility. The Daily Mail has not independently confirmed either account.

Eldredge, who said he is aware of those reports, called any suggestion that Healy bears responsibility for Gerber's death 'absolutely, positively false.' 

He said Healy's ability to help ended when his client, at his encouragement, 'walked through the front door.'

'People are looking for somebody to fault or place blame,' Eldredge said. 'If someone wants to use, they're going to use.'

Eldredge said Healy has stayed in close touch with Gerber's famous parents, supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber, since their son's death, and that they are 'very thankful for what Mike did.'

A representative for the couple did not respond to the Daily Mail's requests for comment. They, along with their 25-year-old model daughter, Kaia Gerber, have asked for privacy.

It is unclear whether the couple approved the choice of a sober house over a state-regulated medical treatment facility, and who recommended it. It is also unclear whether other sober coaches were working with the family at the time.

Experts told us that sober coaches are often recovering addicts who are familiar with the temptations and other challenges their clients are up against.

'Most of these people do what they do because they understand on a cellular level the compulsion to find a temporal escape from permanent trauma,' Eldredge said.

Healy worked with Gerber for 'years, not days, weeks or months,' according to Eldredge.

He said Healy's role ranged from being a regular companion to accompanying Gerber on trips between New York and Los Angeles to 'advocate for his healing.'

According to Eldredge, it took 'months and months' to persuade Gerber to get help.

Eldredge called Resolutions Living a 'very credible, very strong clinical environment.' The sober living residence does not offer medical treatment on site, and California's Department of Health Care Services says it requires no license or agency oversight.

Healy describes himself on LinkedIn as an addiction and recovery expert, interventionist, family recovery advocate and sober companion. He runs Healy Family Services, a company based out of his home in Marina del Rey. 

California Secretary of State records show he founded it as Mike Healy Consulting LLC in 2024, then changed its name to MH Case Management LLC in 2025 before changing its name yet again this year, 18 days before Gerber's death.

Eldredge said he met Healy when Healy sought help for his own addiction issues at Jaywalker Lodge, the rehab center Eldredge used to run near Aspen, Colorado. 

Healy later worked there, processing admissions paperwork, conducting drug testing and administering medication, according to his LinkedIn page.

Healy has spoken openly about his own history, saying in 2024 on the podcast Sicker Than Others that he began using drugs as a young teen. 

He was using opiates, heroin, fentanyl, Xanax, cocaine and meth by his mid-teens – a trajectory that in some ways mirrored Gerber's, who said he started using some of the same drugs after becoming a model at 15.

'I'm a garbage disposal man, so anything on the table I'm gonna do,' Healy said on the podcast, noting that he had been kicked out of four high schools by age 17.

By 25, he said, he had been arrested at least seven times, been locked up in a few psych wards and attended 32 treatment programs.

Healy spoke of reaching rock bottom and living for a spell on Los Angeles' Skid Row where he was selling his body to both men and women for drugs.

He acknowledged having a sex addiction, saying he craved the affection he lacked from his 'workaholic' parents growing up.

'That's where I felt I deserved to be,' he said, describing his sense of himself then as 'the scum of the earth, piece of s**t, hopeless.'

'I was hellbent on using until I died or until I killed myself,' Healy said.

Healy didn't correct the podcast interviewer for assuming, when Healy told him he was from Boston, that he came from a tough neighborhood. 

But public records show he grew up in a stately home, in the posh enclave of Brookline, that sold for $3.6 million in 2015. 

They also show that during his time in Colorado, he lived in a $890,000 vacation home near Aspen owned by his parents.

The son of a Harvard Business School professor who teaches courses on business ethics and white collar crime, Healy said on the podcast that he was a partner in the Little Beach House, but public records show no ownership interest. 

That sober house's website calls him a 'licensed addiction counselor' even though California doesn't license addiction counselors.

Asked about the license claim, Raufmann said Healy is licensed as an addiction counselor in Colorado. 

The Daily Mail's search of Colorado's licensing registry found no current or former addiction counselor license under his name. It did, however, show a pharmacy technician license in 2021 that expired 18 months later.

Both California and Colorado certify substance use disorder counselors through accredited bodies, but a preliminary check of registries showed no sign of Healy being certified. 

The Daily Mail has called and emailed Healy with questions about his credentials, but he has not responded.

Gerber is believed to have checked in to Resolutions Living around 10pm on Saturday, September 19, according to a law enforcement source who spoke to NBC News.

Video obtained by Page Six shows him, presumably that evening, filming a bedroom and a balcony.

Santa Monica police responded to a call around 9.35am Sunday and found him dead.

Authorities are investigating it as a suspected overdose and say there is no indication of foul play. Autopsy and toxicology results have not been released.

Once they are, two addiction experts who have no connection to Healy told us the results are likely to shed light on whether Gerber was already high when Healy helped him check in to the sober home or got high after Healy left.

'Ethically and maybe even legally, that's the million-dollar question,' one said.