“I’ve always felt heard and understood in consultation. I also think Melanie has a skill for compassion and fairness when it comes to best practices for clinicians and clients. Most of all, I’m a better therapist for having worked with her, and I hope our clients are better for it too.”
Matthew Shugart, LPC - Align Wellness
“Melanie's supportive, authentic, and extremely useful guidance has been instrumental in the development of my clinical ability and confidence.”
Natasha Garland, LPC - Align Wellness
“From the outset, Melanie has been an incredible source of support and guidance. Her openness to questions and her ability to foster a nurturing environment have allowed me to expand my capacity and knowledge significantly, especially in new or challenging opportunities with clients. Melanie’s support has not been limited to my professional development; she has genuinely cared about my personal growth and well-being as well.”
Megan Nare, ERYT500 - Align Wellness
“In comparison to my previous supervisors, who were driven by caseloads and hours billed, Melanie goes out of her way to make sure I understand the underlying struggle the client may be facing, why a certain clinical approach or modality would benefit them, and provides resources for my own study! She also adds practical takeaways and alternative thought processes to the field - which benefit me tremendously!”
Daniel Covert, LMSW - Align Wellness
Our practice is different.
I make most of my decisions, including hiring decisions, with my gut (plus background and reference checks). My intuition is the best judge of who is aligned with our vision and values. Here are some of the things we believe in at Align Wellness - see if this vibe feels resonant to you.
Integrative
A lot of people use this word, but here is what we mean when we say integrative: We utilize traditional methodologies and complementary techniques to best serve each individual client. Specifically, you’ll see a lot of yoga and meditative practices here, and we are open to folks bringing their own flavor of research-backed offerings.
Holistic
Another buzzword that’s so prevalent it’s beginning to lose its meaning, holistic, to us, means: taking into account and treating the whole person - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, sexual, relational, and so on. If some aspect of the whole of you is outside of our expertise, we have a rolodex of trusted folks we collaborate with.
Systems-based
I see this as a continuation of holistic care. Our conceptualization of you and the problems you bring to our office doesn’t end at the boundaries of you. It is connected to all of the systems you’re a part of - your family, your ancestors, your community, your religion, your political affiliation, your race, gender, sexuality, nationality, ability/disability, your inherited traumas, your participation in our society that is colonialist, capitalist, racist, sexist, ableist, and all the other -ists and -phobics. These things all contribute to your lived experience, and that is crucial to understand in order to help you thrive.
Trauma-focused
We see many mental health symptoms through a trauma-focused lens. As Oprah popularized, the question is “what happened to you?” not “what’s wrong with you?”
We love hiring folks who are already trained in at least one modality for deep trauma work.
Somatic / Bottom-up / Emotion-focused / Present-moment-focused
While these are all distinct concepts, they all point to a similar approach and goal: to utilize physical sensations in the present moment to access layers of healing underneath the thinking and analyzing parts of the mind.
We want you to be trained in at least one way to do this work, and we prefer that it be your general orientation towards therapeutic work.
Social Justice-minded
We are firmly rooted in our role as individual therapists, and our commitment to being a neutral field for clients to project onto prevents us from publicly advocating for every political view we may have. However, I am a social worker, and embedded in my identity is a radical commitment to social justice. From our seat as therapists, we can embody these values by working to de-colonialize our work and pay attention to and help our clients protect themselves and heal from the destructive and oppressive systems at play. You will also see these values in action in our commitment to ongoing training to better serve marginalized communities, and our prioritizing sliding scale rates for trans and BIPOC clients.
Our contracts are different.
Let’s talk business. Contracts are necessary to protect a business owner’s extensive investment in you, but legalese is intimidating and sometimes even scary. I like to talk really clearly about my contracts up front, because it’s important to me (and you!) that you know what we are promising each other. This is a symbiotic relationship, where a business owner takes on all the risk, and is only rewarded when you keep your word. Some practice owners promise a lot and skim over the hard stuff. That’s not aligned with my values - so around here, I’m conservative in my predictions about caseload growth so that you can make appropriate plans, and I point out the important things you need to understand about what you’re agreeing to.
Term
Our contracts have an initial two-year term, and terms then auto-renew for one year each (like an apartment lease). We will check in a few months prior to each renewal date to chat about your plans.
Our initial two-year term is to offset the significant effort invested in supervision for associates, and insurance paneling for fully licensed clinicians. (Associates will also be paneled with any insurance companies who allow associates to be paneled).
Early exit
Our contracts do not allow for early termination by the contractor. Instead of depending on your understanding of legal contracts and damages, our contracts spell out that should you have to terminate your contract with us prior to the end of your term, there is a financial penalty to help re-coup some of the investment lost by your breach of contract.
Sometimes people ask about extenuating circumstances - this penalty exists even in extenuating circumstances. If you had started your own practice and some emergency required you to close it, you would lose your significant investment, which would be much more than the penalties included in our contract.
Non-compete
You are encouraged to have additional employment if needed to support you as your caseload with us grows. While you work at Align Wellness, you may not work anywhere else where you are responsible for growing a caseload. After you leave Align Wellness, you are prohibited from opening another integrative/holistic group practice within 10 miles of Align Wellness, and you can’t recruit any Align Wellness contractors for any purpose. There are no restrictions on you opening a solo practice after leaving Align Wellness, so long as you leave at the end of your contract term.
Keep your caseload
As long as you fulfill the conditions of your contract and do not leave prior to the end of its term, and barring any ethical issues, you are free to take your caseload of clients with you when you leave.
Supervision/Consultation included
Biweekly supervision is provided to all APCs, AMFTs, and LMSWs. Monthly consultation is provided to all fully licensed clinicians.
If there is an opening in a Supervision group, APCs, AMFTs, and LMSWs can have a spot in the group for free.
Align Wellness clinicians can attend any trainings we offer to the public for free.
Caseload minimums
We require that you see a minimum of 15 clients per week on average. We are flexible and offer ample time and support for you to build a caseload, which at our practice takes on average 9 months for associates, and 6 months for fully licensed folks. These are averages, and some folks have achieved their goals more quickly or slowly.
Most of our “full” clinicians see 20-25 clients per week.
Join the team
If you think you’re a good fit for Align Wellness and it sounds like we can create a win-win-win relationship together, send your resume and letter of interest to Melanie today!
