Aleena Hellebuyck, MA, CAADC-DP

Limited license professional counselor

Aleena has over 10 years of experience with children, adolescents, and families. She is skilled at play therapy with young children, and therapy for teens and families dealing with trauma, anxiety, identity exploration and addiction. She is also trained in the Gottman method and specializes in helping couples navigate all phases of relationships, providing premarital counseling, crisis management and therapy for distress and communication breakdown. She also provides discernment counseling to spouses who don’t share the same commitment to the relationship, and need help figuring out whether to remain in the marriage or seek divorce. Aleena’s clinical style is warm, curious, and collaborative, honoring each client’s unique story and capacity for growth. She is especially passionate about helping people reconnect with themselves, build stronger relationships, and live in alignment with their values.

Clinical Specializations

• Couples therapy
• Play therapy for young children
• Child & adolescent therapy
• Addiction
• Family conflict & divorce

Additional Expertise

• Expert in child abuse & neglect (testified in foster care cases for the State of Michigan)
• Juvenile drug court
• Adoption
• Stress management
• Criminality and re-entry

Education & Background

• Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Central Michigan University
• Limited Licensed Professional Counselor (LLPC), State of Michigan
• Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor – Development Plan (CAADC-DP)
• Former foster care case manager, State of Michigan
• Facilitator for IOP and juvenile drug court groups, Emmet & Charlevoix counties

Favorite therapeutic books

The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.

This book illustrates how trauma reshapes both the mind and body, and why lasting recovery depends on more than just talking, it requires rebuilding safety, connection, and trust. It deepened my understanding of PTSD and reinforced my belief that healing happens through reconnection to one’s own body.

The Molecule of More, Daniel Z. Lieberman & Michael E. Long

I love how this book makes neuroscience feel relatable. It explains how dopamine drives our desire for more, more achievement, more novelty, more stimulation and how that drive can inspire, and yet overwhelm us. It gave me a deeper framework for helping clients navigate the tension between striving for growth and staying grounded in the present.

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  Personal Alignment: Practical Strategies for a Purpose-Driven, Fulfilled Life

  Personal alignment means your daily choices, relationships, and goals reflect a consistent set of core values and an organizing purpose. When values direct your attention and purpose structures sustained effort, decision friction falls, motivation steadies, and emotional balance improves. This article presents a practical, stepwise “Pillars of Alignment” framework you can use to turn values into durable action, strengthen resilience for setbacks, and design work and relationships that feel purposeful. You’ll find clear values-identification exercises, decision heuristics rooted in values, resilience practices informed by attachment and mentalization, and ways personality assessment can shape life-design choices. Each H2 section includes actionable steps, short templates, and ready-to-download mental models so you can begin practicing alignment right away. Keywords such as values-based living,...

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  Strategies for Productivity and Balance: Practical Work–Life Guidance for Professionals

  High-performing professionals routinely juggle heavy workloads, leadership demands, and family or community roles. That tension—between delivering results and staying well—shows up as chronic busyness, fragmented attention, and rising stress. This guide explains productivity and work–life balance through a psychological lens and offers practical, research‑informed tools you can apply now. You’ll find clear, measurable strategies—time blocking, prioritization frameworks, stress‑reduction micro‑practices, and personality‑informed approaches—that increase focused hours and lower burnout risk. We link common psychological drivers (perfectionism, attachment styles, executive‑function differences) to concrete tools and tracking metrics (focused hours per day, deep‑work blocks, subjective stress markers). Sections include step‑by‑step actions for better productivity without sacrificing relationships, evidence‑based time management comparisons, burnout prevention tactics, boundary scripts and digital hygiene, and guidance on when...

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