"All of Western medicine is built on getting rid of pain, which is not the same as healing. Healing is actually the capacity to hold pain." - Gabor Mate

"We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full."  - Marcel Proust

"There is no certainty; there is only adventure." - Roberto Assagioli

About Melanie Storrusten, LCSW
Owner, clinical supervisor, and therapist

Welcome to Align Wellness! I'm Melanie Storrusten, LCSW. In addition to being the founder and owner of Align Wellness, I am a therapist, social worker, yoga and meditation teacher, educator, truth and freedom-seeker, authenticity and vulnerability-encourager, energy-mover and space-holder. It is my hope that your work, with my support and walking-alongside style of guidance, will result in your life holding more joy, more peace, more stability, more abundance, and more freedom.

My vibe is laid back, casual, accessible, unpretentious, and grounded. I'll likely be in yoga pants and my bare feet, and I'll welcome you to take your shoes off and get comfortable as well. It is my intention that everyone entering my space would feel completely at ease, accepted, and affirmed. Our sessions will include traditional talk therapy, breathing exercises, direction to focus on your in-the-moment emotional and physical sensations, creation of a safe container to experience difficult emotion, gentle pushing to shift stuck energies, encouragement of all the things you're doing so well (more than you think!), and a lightness and laughter to break up the hard parts.

My best thing is working with clients who are ready, or who would like to be ready, to tackle the issues that have been kept hidden until now. I am trained in specialized methods to work with trauma, and am skilled at holding space for clients and maintaining a container of safety while they learn to hold space for themselves in order to do this big and powerful work. My style is to move slowly and ensure that your nervous system is as ready as you are before we begin.

My work is currently focused on working with therapists and holistic treatment providers through providing clinical supervision, training, and coaching, especially in the areas of somatic, bottom-up healing, increasing access to a clients' inner healer, incorporating integrative practices and styles into traditional therapy work, the importance of centered embodied presence and mindfulness of the therapist, and expanding ideas of success and abundance for adventurous entrepreneurs.

I am not currently taking on any new clients, but would still love to help you find a great match either with another clinician at Align Wellness, or elsewhere in Atlanta or Georgia, so please don't hesitate to reach out.

I am committed to Align Wellness being a place where everyone is accepted and affirmed. We are a diversity-loving, LGBTQ-affirming, body-positive and sex-positive practice. Your non-traditional relationships, alternative spiritualities, multi-cultural and intersectional self is more than welcome here. I not only welcome your feedback on how we are doing in these areas, but I actively request it!

Congratulations on the wise, brave, and kind choice to engage in this healing work for yourself. Read on for more details about my education and training, career background, and therapeutic modalities used.

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Melanie is in network with Aetna, Ambetter, Anthem/BCBS, Humana, Medicare, and Multiplan. Her standard session rate is $200. She sees adult clients only - individuals and couples, women,  LGB, and trans/non-binary/gender non-conforming folks. Melanie is not currently taking new clients.

Email Melanie

Education and Training
It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I changed majors (journalism, art education, youth ministry), and schools (UGA, ABAC, Toccoa Falls College), several times before landing with my Bachelors of Science in Psychology from Valdosta State University in 2004. I went on to get my Masters of Social Work, also from VSU, in 2010.
In grad school, I completed internships at an inpatient substance abuse treatment program and at my local Children's Advocacy Center, which provided therapy services to children who had been sexually abused.
Also in grad school, I conducted my research thesis and presented at a regional interdisciplinary conference on the Need for a Drug Treatment Court in Rural South Georgia. (They have one now!)
Since grad school, I have completed additional advanced and specialized training in EMDR (EMDR Therapy Basic Training Levels 1 and 2), required trainings to provide telemental health services, IFS (Internal Family Systems), trainings in psychedelic prep and integration through first class clinical training programs MAPS and Fluence, EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy), which focuses on work with couples, and trainings in providing supervision to associate clinicians (Certified Clinical Supervisor for addiction counselors).
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, which means that I'm able to independently provide therapy services in the state of Georgia, including diagnosis, and that I've committed to a higher standard of ethical principles, including social justice and client rights to self-determination, dignity, and respect.
I have received significant training, and provided trainings, in the areas of addiction treatment and working with LGBTQ, especially trans, clients.
I am a co-founder of the LGBTQ Therapist Resource, a group of well-trained and affirming clinicians in the Metro Atlanta area. This group was formed from a desire to connect with like-minded professionals, and to provide a searchable database of safe and competent therapists to work with the queer community. You can find it at http://www.lgbtqtherapistresource.com.
Most importantly, I continue to do my own healing work. I believe this is the most crucial aspect of being an effective therapist, as it allows me to hold space for whatever you bring into our therapeutic relationship, and to maintain my own centered energetic equilibrium in order to create a container that feels safe enough for you to do the difficult work you are here to do.
I also incorporate holistic modalities of care into my work with clients. Read on for more information about my non-clinical training and experience.

Career History
My career prior to Align Wellness Solutions has been in addiction and dual diagnosis treatment, both in providing direct services to clients, and in program management and direction. I have had wonderful experiences learning from the best clinicians and business mentors. I have also had experiences in systems that were misaligned with my own values. Both of these types of experiences allowed me to solidify my own business and treatment philosophies, which are unshakeable. Providing the best possible treatment to clients will always be my bottom line, and all of my business relationships will always be win-win.
2005-2009 Turning Point Hospital, Moultrie GA - therapist at inpatient, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient levels of care, then directing the launch of their Women's IOP
2009-2010 Summit Ridge, Lawrenceville GA - Director of Social Services
2010-2014 Breakthru House (Action Ministries), Decatur GA - Clinical Director, then Executive Director
2014-2017 Founding Board Member, then President of LGBTQ Therapist Resource
2014-2016 Foundations Recovery Network, Atlanta GA - Director of new Midtown IOP
2016-present Owner of Align Wellness Solutions

Therapeutic Approach
CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) - it's pretty impossible to do talk therapy without using this modality. This is where we explore and hopefully shift the relationships between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Somatic and Experiential techniques - I will be encouraging and coaching you to actually (and safely) feel your feelings in your body during our sessions.
Breathwork, Mindfulness, Meditation - these techniques are immediately beneficial in helping to reduce anxiety symptoms, and will also serve to improve your mind-body connection and ability to regulate your nervous system, allowing us to move towards deeper work.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming) - I use this highly researched modality as a gentler, more embodied approach to healing from older traumas and patterns. In all of my approaches to trauma, we move slowly and safely, with a keen focus on all of your "parts" giving consent to move forward. As frustrating as they can be, our defenses are purposeful, so we begin our work earning their trust. EMDR is a powerful technique that can give us access to the subconscious, where deeper healing is more easily accessible. Often, we begin our trauma work by addressing the re-traumatization that my clients have experienced in previous trauma therapy.
Hypnotherapy - this is another technique that allows us access to our subconscious - those parts of the mind underneath the over-thinking parts, where deeper healing can take place. Hypnotherapy seems a lot like guided visualization or meditation in practice, and can often feel like EMDR in terms of outcome.
IFS (Internal Family Systems) - I am not a certified IFS practitioner, but I do utilize the model's concepts and techniques in working with "parts" of our selves.
EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) - This is a model of therapy that informs my work with couples, and focuses on helping folks identify disruptive patterns in their relationships and establish the safety required to identify the emotions and unmet needs underneath those patterns and communicate more vulnerably and effectively with their partners.
Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration Work - for clients who have used, are using, or are considering using psychedelic substances, I offer prep and integration sessions to provide education so that clients can have a safer, more beneficial experience, and can more fully integrate those experiences into meaningful change. I can provide referrals to local providers of ketamine-assisted therapies, and to providers of other psychedelic-assisted therapies in areas where their therapeutic use has been legalized, but psychedelics such as MDMA and psilocybin are still illegal in Georgia. I do not provide any referrals or guidance in obtaining illegal substances, nor do I provide any clinical services to clients while they are under the influence of illegal substances. *Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration work is not currently covered by insurance.

Other Trainings
In addition to my therapy-related trainings, I have explored a variety of healing modalities, specifically those related to accessing and managing what yoga refers to as our subtle energy body. My intention is to explore many methods of healing and energy work, and bring as much of that as possible to the therapy room. I also offer some of these techniques separately from my work with therapy clients.
2016 - 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, Kashi Atlanta
2017 - Apprenticeship, Kashi Atlanta
2017 - Opening Yoga I/II with Matthew Sanford at Mind Body Solutions in Minnetonka, MN
2018 - Heart of Service Shamanic Training with Bloom Post in Black Mountain, NC
2018 - Reiki Level 1 and 2 Practitioner
2018-2019 - Advanced Shamanic Training with Bloom Post in Black Mountain, NC
2019 - Advanced Reiki Training and Reiki Master Training
2019-current - Various courses on Animism and engaging with Ancestors with Daniel Foor at Ancestral Medicine
2023 - Entering the Healing Ground, Grief Ritual Facilitator Training with Francis Weller