Tending the gap and the overlap: clinical therapy and healing arts for clients, practitioners, 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 innermost 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.
01/29/2026
Calling all procrastinators! We see you; we are you! It's not too late to set some intentions for 2026. Join our FREE virtual workshop.
Join our whole-hearted coach, Brawner Raymond, for this free virtual workshop for us procrastinators, “I’ll do it tomorrow”ers, chronic overthinkers, executive don’t-functioners, people who thrive under (postponed) deadlines, and anyone ready to release themselves from the pressure of typical new year's resolutions.
We say it's not too late to set some intentions for 2026, and even that we are right on time as spring begins to stir.
We are situated at the literal midwinter, with large swaths of the country frozen right now, and we are also in the midst of a longer, metaphorical midwinter. Everything is different in this season, and even therapy must be. Now is a time where we are more often dysregulated, and a time to listen to the dysregulation and the message it brings. Now is a time to lean into our regulating practices, not as a place to live, but an anchor point - skills to keep us resilient and alive and not stuck in fight/flight/freeze/scroll. Now is the time for assessing and finding safety, for deepening connection with our neighbors - for seeing how much they need us, and how much we need them, for learning how to store food and light fires that can keep us going for as long as the winter lasts, for looking to those who have done this before, for finding ways to make meaning, connect to something greater, to learn to fight or support those who fight for us.
I want to speak very clearly: recently, (more) human beings were murdered by our government in front of our eyes, and our government quickly lied about those circumstances - despite clear evidence to the contrary. As a trauma therapist it is important for me to reflect and validate that reality. We are watching it, reading about it, talking about it 24/7. This is traumatic - a bombardment of trauma. Just like in many of our own personal traumas, the way a trauma is/is not believed and addressed by those with power is often equally (if not more so) traumatizing as the initial event. To see people, our government, justify these acts is crazy-making. We must not minimize the impact of this to our bodies, minds, or souls. We must take care of ourselves, and each other.
As a therapist, I’d like to take one moment to also say - the psychological defense mechanisms in place for those of y’all still not seeing this for what it is are real, and strong. These are scary things to be true. But we must be willing to look at the uncomfortable truth, because it is a danger to you and others for you to be blind to this, and it is my job as a therapist to point out uncomfortable truths. If you need help doing this, I will help you.
Our upcoming newsletter is resource-heavy in the areas of community, connection, and purpose. May it be of benefit. https://www.alignwellnessatl.com/
01/27/2026
Allow me to re-introduce myself. I'm Melanie Storrusten, owner/creator/mama of Align Wellness. A justice-committed social worker since 2007, my background in addiction treatment at all levels of care and within multiple business structures laid a perfect path to our current thriving practice of trauma-focused, systems-based, somatic, holistic, and integrative work at Align. My work now is focused on providing clinical supervision, education, and mentorship to our team, new therapists throughout Ga and FL, and practice owners everywhere. I'm a single mom to a wildly delightful toddler, and we currently live down in rural Southwest Georgia. Outside of the therapy room, I once was in a band () and still occasionally write and play, and my latest hobbies/obsessions are pottery and genealogy.
01/23/2026
Align Wellness's 2026 Word of the Year: STEADY.
01/20/2026
It feels strange to be posting on social media right now. When I sit down to think of how to say what I want to say about this, I keep thinking of the SNL monologue after 9/11 where Lorne Michaels asks, "Can we be funny?" Can life go on? Can we keep doing what we are here in the world to do? We ask the question because on one hand, it seems like the whole world should stop. But on the other, the answer seems even clearer: that we must keep on. We must pivot, and address the monster before us. We must acknowledge the collapse and unraveling. We must find our ways to fight and take care of each other. And, we must continue to cultivate hope, and joy, and comfort. Please, may the artists continue making art. May the musicians sing songs of protest and love. May the comedians be funny and may we still laugh. The builders must keep building our world. We must plant the seeds and nurture the children. And the therapists must continue to facilitate healing as best we can.
Here at Align Wellness, we are continuing our focus on building community. Part of that is a goal of more presence online and more visibility in our communities. We have an important message about the importance of care - not just self-care, but collective care - and we want to increasingly be of service here in our lane.
01/16/2026
New Year, New Insurance
A friendly reminder to make sure your therapist gets your updated insurance information so we can avoid any additional delays in getting your claims processed. We never like to be the bearer of bad news about surprise increases in copay amounts, especially when claims are delayed and several of those copays are due at once. When that happens, we are willing to work out payment plans to ease the burden - just reach out. If you have any questions about changes in your copay amounts or deductibles that roll over in the new year, please contact your insurance company to ask about your particular plan. We know that this year many clients have lost access to their insurance coverage. If this is you and you are experiencing financial hardship, please reach out so we can explore every option available to us to keep your mental health cared for.
01/13/2026
This winter, when our attention can turn to the coming return of the sun, and to hopes and dreams of spring, let us stay contended to be just a little longer in this present moment - in this winter, in this dark. In this resting and regathering place. May our hands and feet and hearts be warm, and may we find gentle ways to share our warmth with others. May our bellies be full, may our homes be safe, and may our healthcare be affordable. May we join our prayers together and amplify them in a collective voice, knowing more and more deeply that our safety, well-being, and liberation are tied to one another. May our hearts be broken open by the suffering of others. May our days grow longer not only in hours but in the slowing of our experience of time. May our schedules be spacious. May we rest, and may it offer deep restoration, deep down into our bones.
12/17/2025
Registration for the 2026 cohort of my supervision group is open! We will meet virtually, biweekly on Wednesdays 12-1:30 starting Jan 7th. This group will close to new members at the end of January in order to create a safe enough container to hold the kind of risk-taking shares that deep learning requires. Groups led by Melanie Storrusten, LCSW for folks seeking licensure in both GA and FL.
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We provide holistic and integrative mental health treatment encompassing body, mind, and soul by utilizing conventional and alternative methods to facilitate connection with your innate and free-flowing capacity for deeper healing.
Our intention is that our work would contribute to a world where we all know ourselves more fully, care for ourselves more freely, take up space more confidently, and live more joyfully and abundantly from a place of purpose, compassion, and grace.
Align Wellness is filled with compassionate and skilled clinicians ready to meet you where you are, and to walk alongside you on your way to where you want to be. Whether you are looking for traditional therapy, deeper trauma therapy, yoga and meditation instruction, energy work, or holistic psychiatric medication support, we hope that one of our providers will be a good fit for meeting your needs. Read more about our services and reach out to connect about the type of work that feels most resonant to you.
For the traditionalist
Align Wellness Solutions specializes in providing therapy services to address issues of stress, anxiety, and trauma. One of our core beliefs is that this kind of deeper healing happens beneath the realm of cognition and the analytical (our over-thinking minds) - that healing lies in the domain of emotion, energy, and our physical bodies. So our work is based on restoring your connection and relationship to these parts of yourself.
Accessing the subtle body
EMDR
Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a powerful tool for treating post-traumatic stress disorder and for shifting negative core beliefs. This specialized technique can be incorporated into your therapy sessions with Melanie, or added on to your work with another therapist.
Yoga and Meditation
Confession: "yoga and meditation" is redundant. Yoga is a multi-faceted path that includes not only asana, the physical poses we usually think of as "yoga," but also breathwork and several layers of what we usually call "meditation."
Really, yoga means union.
We can use yoga's many tools of mind-body union - whether by way of breathing exercises and guided meditation practices, or sometimes incorporating small amounts of asana practices.
Reiki
Usui Reiki is a system of energy healing in which providers have received attunements to enable them to channel universal life energy (ki/chi/prana) in order to facilitate the body's innate ability to heal. It is used in hospitals and hospices around the world as a complementary treatment. Reiki can be a stand-alone service or can serve as a support for the deep work you are doing in therapy.
Holistic Psychiatric Care
With the addition of Lindsay Fuson, NP, we are pleased to offer holistic and integrated psychiatric services. Lindsay provides conventional medication management services, and also guidance and support regarding natural and alternative methods of managing your mental health symptoms.
