Community Highlights: Meet Melissa Cuthbert of Timber Creek Counseling

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Cuthbert.  

Hi Melissa, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
We are a small community-focused mental health clinic. My husband, Andrew, and I started dreaming up what an intentional, high-quality, and compassionate practice could look like when he was still finishing his doctorate in clinical psychology. We felt that his clinical skills and my business acumen were the perfect combinations to start the adventure of owning our own practice. 

Both Andrew and I grew up in small towns in Michigan and wanted to increase access in a smaller community, which is why we choose Chelsea, MI as the location of our practice. We focus our work on providing life-span mental health services, and our mission is to promote the wellness and dignity of adults, children, couples, and families through providing compassionate, evidence-based, and individualized mental health care services. 

Since our launch, we have grown into a practice that includes twelve amazingly talented clinicians and a second location in Grandville, MI. We have expanded our offerings to include unique services such as a Therapeutic Table Top Role-Playing Game Group led by Miles Keller, LLPC, bilingual services offered by Angela Begres, MSW, and quarterly couples retreats led by Dr. Cuthbert. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Thankfully we have not encountered any major obstacles in our last four years. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to pivot almost overnight to exclusively offering telehealth services in place of in-person services. This definitely came with a learning curve for both us and our clients. We had to quickly learn a new video platform, new billing procedures, and new clinical best practices for virtual care. Thankfully we are in a place where we are able to offer both virtual and in-person appointments seamlessly. 

Also, co-running an organization with my partner has come with a learning curve as well. Thankfully we learned quickly how to communicate well and assign tasks based on our areas of expertise. We also have learned to stop “work talk” in the evenings and weekends so that we are able to balance our personal and professional life. I know working with your partner isn’t for everyone, but we have a lot of fun together! 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Timber Creek, we take a lot of pride in providing high-quality and compassionate services. I believe we have developed a reputation for being excellent at what we do. As a life-span clinic, we serve clients aged 5 on up. Under this umbrella, we also have several clinical specialties. We have several clinicians certified in Trauma-Focused CBT, we have a leading clinician in MPE/NPE (misattributed parentage experience and non-paternity event), and we also specialize in couples counseling. 

As a practice, we also started Timber Creek Tees, a mental health advocacy brand. We sell apparel that serves as conversation starters and a way to advocate for destigmatizing mental health. The proceeds from our sales go towards providing free and reduced-rate counseling at our clinic. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.timbercreekcounseling.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timbercreekcounseling/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timbercreekcounseling

Image Credits
Jennifer Buehrer