Align Wellness

Align Wellness Tending the gap and the overlap between psychotherapy and healing arts for clients, clinicians, and community.

Our providers:

Melanie Storrusten, LCSW - owner and therapist, providing therapy for deeper healing, specializing in working with folks healing after trauma, LGB and trans clients, those seeking to reaffirm their connection with their bodies that may feel disrupted due to stress and trauma, illness or injury, body image concerns, or all of the ways society teaches us not to listen to our truest i

nnermost voice. Melanie utilizes yoga, meditation, breath practices, reiki, and EMDR as well as traditional talk-therapy techniques. Visit http://www.alignwellnessatl.com to read about our other clinicians.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw o...
05/29/2026

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines! Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!" (Mark Twain actually didn't write this! It was H. Jackson Brown in his book, P.S. I Love You, and he is quoting his mother, Sarah Frances Brown.)

Here's Align therapist Kaleigh McAfee, showing us all how to adventure well!

Align therapist Matthew Shugart, LPC says, "I love the idea of not having to do it alone. In a culture that seems to ido...
05/28/2026

Align therapist Matthew Shugart, LPC says, "I love the idea of not having to do it alone. In a culture that seems to idolize isolation, this quote reminds me that healing often comes through connection with others."

I once heard someone give a talk about "positive paranoia." The idea that what if, instead of indulging our brain's natu...
05/26/2026

I once heard someone give a talk about "positive paranoia." The idea that what if, instead of indulging our brain's natural bias towards the negative, what if we believed something like: 🌸Everything in the universe is conspiring for my greatest good! and practiced looking for evidence of that? Does it feel a little bypass-y? Yeah, it could be. But it's no more irrational than the common belief: The universe is always out to get me, and the other shoe always drops. When we look for evidence of that, we are surely bound to feel worse.

No one is saying that this is going to magically solve all (or any) of your problems, but as simple as it is - looking on the bright side does improve our outlook. This doesn't mean that you should skip over the painful parts, or ignore your unpleasant feelings. It just means, for a moment, maybe look for something else. Therapists call this pendulation. We can't handle staying in our discomfort all the time. If we want to actually increase our capacity to do that deeper, difficult, shadowy work, we have to be able to ride the pendulum swing out of all that and into something nice or neutral so we have a chance to breathe. Everyone needs to pendulate out sometimes - even you. Healing isn't just the hard parts. When we feel discomfort about allowing ourselves to feel nice - that's part of what needs healing, love.

Kaleigh McAfee, AMFT shares about her personal positivity practice, "On Nov 20, 2024, I put a daily reminder in my phone to write down "5 things that went well in my life today." I have not missed a single day. It is the most consistent thing I've ever done. AND LET ME TELL YOU: It works.

They don't have to be big things. They range from "I found $20 in a birthday card from 6 years ago" to "I finally realized today that I'm on the right path." Something I was proud of myself for that day. Some gratitude. But I make myself take the time to come up with 5 things. Period. Now I find hella stuff, every single day, that went well for me. I'm not a CBT girl, but there. This "you find what you're looking for" s**t is so for real."

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How are the therapists coping? is a series of posts where our therapists share their most impactful coping skills during times of non-stop chaos and crisis. We'd love to hear yours, too. May it be of benefit. ❤️ 🙏

Allow me to introduce a friend of ours, Ganesha. Ganesha is a deity in the Hindu tradition who is known as a placer and ...
05/25/2026

Allow me to introduce a friend of ours, Ganesha. Ganesha is a deity in the Hindu tradition who is known as a placer and remover of obstacles, making our highest and best path more clear, both *for* us, and *to* us.

Have you ever been working so hard towards a goal, and you just hit wall after wall? Giving it your all, and remaining at a frustrating standstill? Or worse, that you keep moving backward no matter how fast you run? Hustle culture tells us to keep going, keep pushing, keep striving. Keep giving 110%. That we should overcome every obstacle in pursuit of what we want. To sacrifice our health, relationships, everything we have on the altar of achievement.

And sometimes we are graced with a moment of clarity - we can see that we are swimming upstream, we are beating on a brick wall and achieving nothing, but hurting ourselves. A softer voice says: Life is best when it flows, like a river.

If I pay attention and learn to read the river, I can steer myself to be in the best position for what's ahead; I can paddle faster strategically to catch the swift current and then coast effortlessly. I can forget hustle, and cease striving. What if I do not have to over-effort to receive? What if I do not have to hurt myself to be ok?

Ganesha, whether you see him as a metaphor or a deity, can help us to remember: it's not my job to remove the obstacles, it's my job to read the flow around them, and to align with it. To find what is already flowing in the direction I want to go, and to allow it to help me get there with more grace and ease. To recognize when something is a rapid - a challenging spot that I can get through with hard work - or a rock - meant to shift my path.

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At Align, we believe that three things are crucial to be a part of everyone's care plan, especially now: 1. connection to true community where there is not only affinity, but a reciprocal exchange of practical support, 2. purposeful action where meaningful impact can be seen, and 3. spiritual beliefs and practices.

Spirituality is a tricky thing for a lot of us. Some of us don't have any spiritual beliefs and don't want any, and some of us have been greatly wounded by religion. At Align, we define spirituality as anything that makes us feel more connected to:
- our innermost self
- to others and the Earth
- or to God - however we may define or hold the mystery of that concept.

We have found deep spirituality in nature, in our neighbors, in silence, in our body, in rooms full of addicts, in deities of religions we may not even believe in, in the wonders of science, in poetry, art, and music, in atheist philosophy, around campfires, in volunteer groups, in singing together, in yoga, in ritual, in running, in our own therapy offices, in pain and loss, in joy and awe. We share small glimpses of spirituality wherever we might find it, not that we want you to believe in any particular thing - or in anything at all, but that you might find something meaningful, somewhere. May it be of benefit.❤️ 🙏

LIVE JULY 24: Choose Your Own Adventure: Ethics - Applying Ethical Decision Making Models to Today's Clinical Dilemmas -...
05/22/2026

LIVE JULY 24: Choose Your Own Adventure: Ethics - Applying Ethical Decision Making Models to Today's Clinical Dilemmas - 6 hours

Through a review of our professional ethical codes, laws governing our profession, and an orientation to multiple ethical decision-making models, we will choose one complex contemporary ethical dilemma (by cohort voting) and discuss, debate, examine, and prioritize the competing clinical values and ethical principles involved. This presentation will present and critique a variety of decision-making models developed within the mental health field, as well as models drawn from philosophy and indigenous ethical frameworks. Participants will be able to discuss the pros and cons of each model, recognize that ethics is a complex puzzle of competing important values and principles, and use a chosen ethical decision-making model, our professional codes of ethics, and legal parameters to inform their own applied decision-making for complex modern ethical dilemmas.

Approved by GSCSW ( #052926) for 6 ETHICS hours for Social Workers, Professional Counselors, and Marriage and Family Therapists.

Course is LIVE on Friday, July 24th from 9:00am - 4:30pm EST. See course offerings for alternative dates. https://align8.teachable.com/p/choose-your-own-adventure-ethics-applying-ethical-decision-making-models-to-today-s-clinical-dilemmas

Did you know we have a weekly virtual yoga class on Monday nights? And that it's totally free for all Align clients? And...
05/22/2026

Did you know we have a weekly virtual yoga class on Monday nights? And that it's totally free for all Align clients? And that it's open to everyone? Join Megan Nare, ERYT-500 as she leads trauma-sensitive classes intentionally designed to support your work in therapy (or wherever you do your healing work).

Classes alternate each week:

Embodied Awareness and Active Self-Discovery - a beginner-friendly, more active yoga practice with a goal of developing more presence through movement. This is a great class for folks looking to improve their connection to and relationship with their bodies, develop skills in awareness and non-judgement of physical and emotional sensations, and build confidence.

Restorative Yoga for Deep Nervous System Reset - a beginner-friendly, restful yoga practice with a goal of helping our bodies gradually experience safe stillness and a more nourished and resourced nervous system. This is a great class for folks who struggle to relax but would like to learn, who need a break from fight/flight, but may have challenges in shifting to a more restful state. You can expect guided breathwork, body scans, and supportive postures as we begin to disrupt the connection between productivity and self-worth. It is our hope that you will begin to experience rest as a powerful tool for healing.

These sessions are open to the public - you do not have to be a client of Align Wellness to attend. Cost is $13.58 (including eventbrite processing fees) per session. If you are a client of Align Wellness, please contact your therapist to receive your discount code to register for FREE.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/align-wellness-virtual-weekly-yoga-class-registration-1334391072619?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

I created this guided meditation in 2016 - a time of great overwhelm for so many of us. This guided meditation is meant ...
05/21/2026

I created this guided meditation in 2016 - a time of great overwhelm for so many of us. This guided meditation is meant to be a balm to a frazzled and frayed nervous system, a pouring of nourishing nectar right onto your nerves (down to your very last one). This practice is meant to be an energetic version of shirodhara - an ayurvedic practice where warm oil is poured onto your third eye for an extended period of time. An anointing. May it be so. It is our free gift to you, among other guided meditations.

https://www.alignwellnessatl.com/offerings/p/nourishing-your-nervous-system

Creativity and stress are not friends. They don't really share the same space for long. If they both show up, one usuall...
05/19/2026

Creativity and stress are not friends. They don't really share the same space for long. If they both show up, one usually runs the other off pretty quickly. It may seem that creative acts and making art are frivolous pursuits in serious times. But art is perhaps one of the most important ways to resist - both in protecting your own well being and feeding your spirit, and also for the inspiration, meaning-making, and recording of history that it accomplishes. Creativity also opens up doors to mindfulness, beneficial flow states, and a spirit of play - all of which are some of the most healing things we can do.

Julie Lane, LPC and Align therapist say, "One of my favorite ways to manage stress and do something creative is working on large canvas paint by numbers. This image is my most recent painting of a beautiful tree at sunset in the fall. I find the image of a tree very grounding and the stained glass as the spiritual aspects of nature."

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How are the therapists coping? is a series of posts where our therapists share their most impactful coping skills during times of non-stop chaos and crisis. We'd love to hear yours, too. May it be of benefit. ❤️ 🙏

"Through my yoga teacher training and a breathwork workshop I had attended, I learned about a shamanic teacher who was c...
05/18/2026

"Through my yoga teacher training and a breathwork workshop I had attended, I learned about a shamanic teacher who was coming to town to lead a Cacao Ceremony. Having no idea what a shaman was nor cacao, I signed up right away. Coincidentally (wink), I got into a car accident right before the ceremony, and I was selected for a Soul Retrieval practice. (The simplified idea being that part of our soul leaves us when we experience a trauma, and we can call it back now that we are safe again). As the teacher talked me through the steps, my mind drew immediate and direct connections to the Internal Family Systems (IFS) training I’d completed days before. It was the same thing, in a different language. I wondered if Dick Schwartz, the founder of IFS, had studied shamanism (yes), or if Truth’s muses had simply told its stories to more than one person in more than one way (also yes).

A spark was lit that day that has grown into the fire of one of the core purposes of my work: to help build a bridge from the power of those older, earth-honoring, and ancestral practices to the people who sought care through traditional healthcare channels. To people who would never know to or dare to or want to go to a shaman or a ritual or maybe even a yoga class, but who deserve access to this deeper place of meaning and transformation nonetheless. To stand in the gap, to practice in an in between space. To translate healing practices into patriarchy-and-insurance-company-approved language so that they’re available to more of us, and to somehow try to do that while keeping the integrity and wholeness and spirit of these practices in tact."

More in our latest essay on substack about the Threshold we're tending at Align - the gap and the overlap between psychotherapy and healing arts for clients, clinicians, and community.

https://alignwellness.substack.com/p/the-threshold-were-tending

We joke that if you don't have tattoos when you start working at Align, you probably will soon. Other things we might re...
05/15/2026

We joke that if you don't have tattoos when you start working at Align, you probably will soon. Other things we might require/you might acquire working here: a neurodivergent diagnosis, witchy spiritual practices, anti-capitalist views, and a much better work-life balance.

Pictured are Melanie, Kaleigh, and Laura in a small sampling of their tattoo adventures. Not pictured: Matt, and coming soon: Julie!😜

Address

3548 Habersham At Northlake
Tucker, GA
30084

Telephone

+14044012587

Website

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