All Terrain Counseling

07/18/2026

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYNF2OkjNR4/?igsh=cjJ3ZnNianJub2F3

07/15/2026

As we all squeeze every drop of summer beach days in Northern Michigan, I have also notice the erosion and changes around the Great Lakes. Take notice of them or think of your last visit, the shoreline, and the places where water, wind, and time have slowly changed the terrain. Erosion happens gradually... small waves and repeated storms can change the landscape over time.

Journal Prompt: Reflect on your own life:

What experiences, messages, or relationships have slowly eroded my sense of safety, trust, worth, or belonging?
What beliefs have been worn into me by those experiences, and are they truths, or are they evidence of what I endured? Is what I have endured more dominant through patterns, behavior and engagement then who I know I am? What parts of me have been working hard to protect me from further erosion? What do those parts need from me now?Where am I still allowing old wounds to shape my choices, relationships, or view of myself?

The Great Lakes shoreline is not unchanged after storms, but it is still a shoreline. What parts of myself remain strong, valuable, and intact despite what has happened? What actions, boundaries, relationships, or practices can help me restore what has been worn down?

What am I ready to stop carrying? What am I ready to rebuild, adjust, or address?

Remember: erosion is a process, not a definition. Like the shoreline of the Great Lakes, you have been shaped by storms, tides, and forces beyond your control, but you are not broken. A shoreline that changes is not a ruined shoreline; it is a living landscape adapting, enduring, and becoming something new.

06/22/2026

I get asked alot about neurodivergent affirming assessments. This is the agency I suggest.

Neurodiversity-affirming assessments are a compassionate and inclusive approach to understanding neurological differences, such as autism, ADHD, OCD, and other conditions. These assessments differ from traditional models by focusing on the strengths, preferences, and needs of neurodiverse individual...

05/11/2026

Help From My Friends would like to extend a welcome to any food trucks that would be interested in drawing a crowd for our Memorial Day Yard Sale!

Last year, we had Good to Go MI and the food was incredible! They kept our staff, volunteers, and bargain shoppers well fed and happy!

If interested in joining us for Memorial Weekend, please call 231-533-4070 or 231-357-2602!

🦴

04/19/2026

Journal Prompt: Go to a natural space and notice the pace of what’s around you IE. the wind moving through trees, water flowing, insects pausing and moving again. Create a simple sketch or pattern that reflects all the rhythms you see.
Then write:
If my inner world were a landscape, what “parts” of me hold different speeds, needs, and capacities? Which part pushes for more, and which part asks for rest or protection? Without trying to change them, what happens if I listen to each as valid?
Where might I be using expectations (my own or others’) as a kind of pressure or shield against accepting my identity and/or neurodivergent way of being? What would it look like to pace my days or weeks in alignment with my actual energy rhythms, rather than an idealized one? Who's voice or expectations exist in this idealization, or what roots me here?
Like the ecosystem around me, what would “enough” look like?

04/13/2026

If this resonates with you, it can be so very difficult to parent. What triggers you just maybe the things that were never allowed to exist.. reciprocity, humanity, vocalization, presence, patience, etc. Don't feel shame for surviving but rather get support to deal with the anger that can live in the cleanup of the impact you didn't create. You deserve stillness and connection in your parenting and a strong bond in your connection while feeling calm and regulated. One of the single most triggering experiences for caregivers is having children, they provide a mirror for the parts of you that aren't yet healed, or have not surrendered because they don't know the threat is gone. I see you, reach out if you need or want support.

Some children do not get a childhood in the way people imagine childhood should be.

They do not get to simply play, feel safe, be carefree, make mistakes, and trust that someone else is carrying the emotional weight of the home.

Instead, they adapt.

They become alert too early.
They learn to study tone.
To notice silence.
To read footsteps.
To scan faces.
To sense when something is “off” before anything is even said.

This is how hypervigilance begins.

It is not just overthinking.
It is not just being sensitive.
It is a nervous system learning that staying aware feels safer than relaxing.

So while other children were daydreaming, laughing, and feeling held, some children were learning how to survive environments that asked too much from them too soon.

That kind of childhood leaves a mark.

It can show up later as:
• feeling tired in ways you cannot explain
• struggling to rest fully
• reacting strongly to small changes
• feeling on edge when someone’s tone shifts
• always preparing for something to go wrong

Not because you are weak.
Not because you are dramatic.
But because your body remembers what it had to do to get through it.

This is why healing is not only emotional.
It is physical too.

It is the slow work of teaching your nervous system that it no longer has to live like danger is always nearby.

If this resonates with you, I Didn’t Choose to Be Born goes deeper into these childhood wounds, nervous system patterns, and the journey of healing what survival had to build inside you.

Link in bio.

04/13/2026

Journal prompt: Sit somewhere in nature where you feel both exposed and held (an open field, a forest edge, near water). Gather or sketch a natural “shield” (a leaf, bark, stone, or an abstract form). Then journal: In what ways have I used a relationship to protect myself rather from loneliness, uncertainty, or facing myself? What does this shield help me avoid, and what might I encounter if I gently set it down, even for a moment? How does this feel within me, and what parts are holding the connection out of something other than healthy connection and reciprocity?

02/20/2026

Journal prompts: Reflect on patterns shaped by family, culture, or lineage that live within you. Notice where you are actively working to interrupt these inherited dynamics, and where you may still be carrying them, rather consciously or not. How does being held within this intergenerational story affect the way you show up in parenting, interpersonal relationships, and intimacy? Where do you feel tension, protection, or softness? Observe how your self-esteem, boundaries, and needs are currently being acknowledged, negotiated, or overlooked rather by yourself and/or by others. What does it mean to honor where you come from while choosing how you move forward?

02/06/2026

Journal prompt: Bring awareness to a familiar pattern or cycle in your life, you know the one. Acknowledge what this part has done for you, how it has helped you survive, cope, or belong. Gently name how it is no longer serving you, and what it costs or any gains you receive to stay within its rhythm. Imagine loosening or breaking from this cycle. In the space it leaves behind, what might emerge, what new growth, voice, or truth? If this part were a boundary shaped by nature (stone, bark, shoreline, root), what was it protecting, and what boundary feels true for you now?