Good Neighbor Podcast: Cobb County
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Cobb County. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Milli M. helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Cobb County, Georgia.
Is your business serving the residents of Cobb County? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpCobbCounty.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cobb County
E33: Finding Safety in Therapy: How Safe Harbor Counseling Serves Atlanta
When Meghan Leigh Manuell lost her father unexpectedly at the height of her career, the experience transformed her approach to counseling. As founder of Safe Harbor Counseling Services, she now brings deeper empathy and understanding to clients navigating their own life challenges.
"Asking for help is actually the strongest thing you can do," Meghan shares during our heartfelt conversation. This licensed professional counselor debunks common therapy myths, explaining that counselors aren't there to dispense advice but to support clients in finding their own paths. She challenges the misconception that therapy is only for those with severe mental health issues, asserting that everyone experiences stress, anxiety, loss, and relationship challenges that can benefit from professional guidance.
From her virtual practice based in Woodstock, Georgia, Meghan specializes in addiction recovery and couples counseling while also supporting clients through anxiety, depression, and life transitions. Her journey to becoming a therapist wasn't linear—beginning with a psychology degree at UGA, then graduate studies at Georgia State, followed by an internship at Northside Hospital where she discovered an unexpected passion for addiction counseling. After years in treatment centers and even briefly stepping away from the profession, she returned with renewed purpose to establish her independent practice.
Beyond her professional life, Meghan reveals herself as an avid traveler, food enthusiast, and equestrian who volunteers with hospice—experiences that enrich her therapeutic approach. For anyone struggling with life's challenges, Safe Harbor offers exactly what its name suggests: a protected space to work through difficulties with someone firmly in your corner. Discover how counseling might support your journey by contacting Meghan through safeharborcs.com or calling 770-284-8992. Your first step toward healing might be just a conversation away.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Millie M.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm Millie M. Are you in need of someone to help you work through life challenges? Well, someone might be closer than you think. I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Megan Lee Manuel of Safe Harbor Counseling Services. How are you, Megan? I am great. How are you Doing quite well? Thank you for asking. We're so excited to hear all about you and your business. Tell us more about Safe Harbor.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Yeah, so I'm a local practice here in the Atlanta area. I am based out of Woodstock, but my practice is completely virtual so I see all of my clients virtually. So I'm somebody who has my license in professional counseling, so I am a therapist and pretty much my focus is mostly addictions and couples counseling, and then I also work with anxiety and depression and kind of all the major things that people struggle with stress and life transitions, you name it.
Speaker 2:Well, how?
Speaker 3:did you get into this?
Speaker 2:business.
Speaker 3:Well. So I knew that I wanted to be in some kind of a helping profession. I kind of started off all over the place when I was in college, but I got my undergrad at Georgia and while I was there really kind of felt like I was already that person in my friend group. So I decided that, you know, that was a really good fit. So I got my degree in psychology and then I did my undergrad in or excuse me, my graduate was at Georgia State University and then from there I did some internships.
Speaker 3:I did my internship at Northside Hospital and then from there they got me interested in addictions. I never thought that that was something that I would want to do, and then I realized I loved working with that population. So I ended up staying at Northside for another four years or so, transitioned to another treatment center and then took a break for about a year from counseling and was working in a non-related field and then realized I missed it. And so it was at that point that I decided that I was going to do whatever it took to be able to run my own practice, and so that's what I did. I decided to open up the doors and just felt like you know, being on my own, I could provide more of the care that I wanted to provide.
Speaker 2:Love that independence and I think that's a very encouraging story of you saying you were all over the place to having a very clear definition of what you wanted to do, because I think sometimes college students feel like they have to have it all figured out.
Speaker 3:I think you're absolutely right. They come to me all the time and they say but so-and-so and so-and-so know exactly what they want to do. And I tell them it's actually pretty rare.
Speaker 2:Right, right. It's a journey for most people, so tell me what are some.
Speaker 3:I would think there are probably two biggest myths. One is that we're going to give you advice and tell you what to do with your life.
Speaker 2:Tell me how to fix my problem Right.
Speaker 3:Now there may be certain things that come up or I'm able to say, hey, have you thought about this or you know, kind of help you to find a path. But you know our goal is to help you to be able to kind of figure some of this out on your own, but us being support for you. I'd also say that there's the misconception that you have to have some major mental illness in order to benefit from counseling. Everybody benefits from counseling because everybody struggles with some kind of stress, some kind of anxiety. We all have losses, we all grieve, we all lose loved ones and so remembering you don't have to have something severe going on, and especially for the couples, letting couples know that everybody needs couples counseling.
Speaker 3:I always get around with my clients and say couples who stay in couples counseling don't need couples counseling right so you know, it's just recognizing that, like you, don't have to be at the end of your rope to come to counseling either.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. So who are your target customers and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:I know you just said everybody has a life challenge, so sure, I typically work with clients who are kind of high school age and older, so don't do a lot of work with children. But the clients that I work with, I really love to work with clients that are highly motivated. You know any of the concerns that we've addressed, you know, are things that I can work with. You know typically how I find my clients a lot of word of mouth. I have lived in the Atlanta area since I was nine years old, so a lot of word of mouth. But then also, you know, I do take insurance, so through the insurance companies and I do a little bit of advertising as well.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. So, outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Well, my husband and I love to travel. That is a big passion of ours. We tend to take quite a few trips throughout the year. Also, all three of our kids live in different states, so we travel a lot. We are big foodies, so we love to eat and we love to travel to eat as well. We do a lot of volunteer work. I volunteer with hospice and I ride horses.
Speaker 2:Oh wow. Well, God bless you for that. And horses are very peaceful animals. They're almost therapeutic themselves. They are, oh yeah absolutely.
Speaker 3:I encourage people to spend time around horses for that reason.
Speaker 2:So let's switch gears a bit. Can you describe a hardship or life challenge that you had to overcome and how it made you stronger?
Speaker 3:Sure, absolutely Back a few years ago. I was in the kind of height of my career and I was about to get engaged and start planning a wedding and I had just gotten back from a trip and my father passed away unexpectedly and so having to be with him through, you know, all of the weeks that he was in ICU and then all the time he was in hospice was a really difficult time. And then to try to have to then get engaged and plan a wedding and, you know, still try to take care of my clients, it was, it was definitely hard and you know it gave me a lot more empathy for my clients and helped me to really understand more where they come from. And you know, grief is something that is a bigger challenge and much more nuanced than I thought it was, but it definitely helped me to be stronger and more empathetic and to learn how to spend more time with my loved ones.
Speaker 2:It's a wonderful lesson to cherish every moment, and I know it has helped you in your work, in volunteer work, in hospice, and you know, grieving is one of those things that is an ongoing process, you know, some days you're okay and some days you're not, so I'm glad that you got to spend that time with him. So please tell our listeners one thing you would like for them to remember about Safe Harbor.
Speaker 3:What I'd like for the clients to know is that it's a safe place for you to come and to be able to have the support, somebody who is on your team to really be that cheerleader and that person there to help you work through any of the things that you're going through, and that the first step is the hardest and that's just reaching out and asking for help, and that asking for help is actually the strongest thing you can do.
Speaker 2:Well, how can someone reach out to you if they need you?
Speaker 3:Sure, absolutely. They can reach me on my website, which is safeharborcscom, and my phone number is 770-284-8992. I am also on Facebook and Instagram. Under A Therapist's Perspective.
Speaker 2:Love that. Thank you so much for being with us, Megan. We really appreciate your time.
Speaker 3:Best of luck to you and your business moving forward Great.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpcobcountycom. That's gnpcobcountycom, or call 470-470-4506.