About Melaney Houle

After initially being accepted into the nursing program at Elms College, I spent two years in school before realizing that while I loved helping people, I had not found my passion in the medical field. My joy came in talking with my patients, hearing their stories and learning about their lives. This interest led me to pursue my undergraduate degree in psychology instead, in retrospect because understanding how and why people acted the way that they did might just help me understand myself. 

I spent a few years working in direct client care as a social worker, assisting adults with major mental illness and a history of homelessness. My first job as an outreach worker in downtown Springfield truly gave me a skill set and a crash course in the mental health field that no other opportunity could have provided. 

But it quickly became apparent that in order to be able to truly make an impact (and a living) in my field, I needed to go back to school. Shortly after becoming a blushing bride, I started the full time MSW program at Westfield State University in 2012. My first year internship was on an inpatient psychiatric unit, working with folks in their deepest time of need. I loved it so much that I stayed on per diem for months after my internship ended. My second year internship was as a community based mental health clinician, providing 1:1 and group therapy sessions for adults and children. This internship gave me the chance to begin to spread my wings as a therapist, a job I had always thought would suit me since I was quite young. I earned my Master's Degree in Social Work from Westfield State University in 2014 and graduated with high honors. 

After graduation (literally about 3 weeks after), I gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. I spent those first few years of motherhood working part time as a licensed social worker, earning my LCSW in November of 2014. I worked first as a medical social worker and then as a social worker for the Boys and Girls Club of Springfield. At the club, I established a highly successful social work program which included the supervision of 4 social work interns from local universities. In 2016, as a result of my efforts at SBGC and as a field supervisor, I was recognized as MSW Alumni of the Year at my Alma Mater Westfield State University. 

Just before the birth of my daughter in 2016, I made the decision to step back from the social work field, and launched a successful online clothing boutique. A few months later, it became a full-time family business when my husband Brandon joined forces with me. We built a beautiful online community over the years, and also opened a brick and mortar store in the urban Chicopee Center in the summer of 2019. The store closed after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic which was perfect timing for the Universe to begin to change my life in a really profound way. 

In early 2020, I completed my 200 hour yoga teacher training program in Northampton, MA. I also hold a 50 hour certificate for yin and yoga nidra. Shortly after finishing yoga teacher training, while spending more time at home during the pandemic, I started on my own path towards immense personal healing. Utilizing yoga and meditation, I slowly opened my mind enough to begin to face my intense childhood memories of physical and emotional abuse, as well as severe religious/cult trauma. A few months into this healing journey, I was launched into the deepest grief of my life thus far, after losing one of the most important people in my life, my maternal grandmother Gracinda. All of this compounded grief led me to make one of the most drastic decisions of my entire life. My husband and I decided quite suddenly to sell our home, move into a camper for a few months and travel the coast, prior to purchasing our dream fixer upper farmhouse in the country.  My entire life I had dreamed of having my own piece of land, a few acres with some chickens and beautiful, peaceful views. The Universe knew exactly what She was doing as she guided us exactly to where we needed to be. A new home, a fresh start...and a chance to do things MY way, in all aspects of my life. 

In the spring of 2022, after months of therapy and healing, I decided that it was time to reconnect with my social work skills and use them to start my own private practice, blending my experience as a certified yoga teacher with my professional and lived experience with mental health. I am also an avid writer since childhood, and I have committed to making writing a daily part of my life. I am currently working on my first book, a memoir of my own personal healing journey as I recovered from complex PTSD due to extensive childhood trauma. 

When I am not writing or supporting folks on their healing journeys, you will find me at home in the garden and enjoying time with my family and friends. My husband Brandon and I have been married for over a decade, and the life we have built together with our two children reminds me every single day that there is hope after losing much of my life to trauma.