Inspiring Conversations with Erin Grove-Eckelman of Root & Bloom Counseling and Wellness, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Grove- Eckelman.

Hi Erin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Listening to my tea kettle whistle after having taken my dog to be spayed and my daughter her bookbag to school that she forgot, I sit down to write my story for Voyage Ohio and wonder what can I say that will tell my story well. I am late getting this in, I have a terrible cold and I have work to do. So I’m like any typical mom trying to keep it together in these ways.

They (Voyage Ohio) want to know how I started and I assume that means they want to know how I started in the field of therapy. I wonder if I should tell them that it started before I was born, in the womb, listening to loud voices in the world outside. It most likely started by feeling my mother’s pain, the pain of abuse, verbal and physical. I was born into an unstable environment and I quickly learned to become the one who could see what was going to happen before it happened, and hear tones of voices that meant trouble was coming and hopefully make it stop. These skills weren’t asked for, they were given by my environment and circumstances. As I got older, I could engage with people and could sense when they were uneasy and had an ability to listen. My dad, who adopted me at a young age after marrying my mother when I was five, would always tell me as a teenager to focus on my own problems and not everyone else’s. But it just seemed natural to me to listen to others and create a safe space where they could be heard.

It wasn’t until I was much older that I recognized that my biological father was “schizophrenic,” a word hastily written on a medical form I happened to see because I was his legal guardian. A word that horrified and shut me down at the time. A word reserved for those who truly were mentally unwell. We know now much more about schizophrenia and there is much more research, love and hope around this diagnosis. My biological father was not exposed to that hope or resources that did him any real benefit. I am sad for his reality. As a young girl who was exposed to domestic violence and took on the responsibility of ensuring that my grandmother was not harmed, I also had my demons to face and conquer. I will never pretend that they were as hard as his demons, but they were demons nonetheless.

Like many people, I struggled with self worth and relationship dynamics. What is love and what is family and where does one’s worth come from? How do we know that when our examples at a young age have been a bit off from the typical? For many years, I read self help books and then started going to therapy after becoming pregnant with my first child. I also studied yoga and became a yoga teacher and finally, after going through a divorce, finished my Masters of Science in Mental Health Counseling. Today I am a therapist myself and my passion is women who may have had childhood trauma and become stuck in patterns that don’t serve them, whether those patterns are visible in the outside world or internal. I want to be able to create a safe space for my clients, whether they experienced trauma or not, where they can hear themselves, cultivate healing and step into their most authentic self. I also really love working with couples, as I believe that relationships are one of the best resources for personal growth as well as growth in belonging and togetherness.

Looking back, my passion and dedication has mostly been in fields that are of service to others, from restaurants in my teens and twenties, to working at a hospital, to yoga and now therapy for whole self wellness. My practice, Root & Bloom Counseling and Wellness, LLC is just me at the moment but I look forward to it blooming as well and becoming bigger than me. My hope is that the larger “we” at Root & Bloom can offer many resources for healing and growth and community for those who seek it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it has not been a smooth road. I’ve touched on my story in the previous question and will just add that opening a business is tough. You have to be committed and a little bit audacious, but if you’re passionate and hard working, it can be a very rewarding venture. It will bring up any insecurities and there will certainly be challenges. Challenges like finding a physical location, and then when you think you have the location secured, it being leased out last minute to another renter. Financial challenges as starting a business is very costly. Challenges on your time, with roles such as being a wife and a mom meaning that you are trying to make sure there is enough of you to go around. And it often feels like there is not. So there definitely has to be something deeper within a person to drive them to continue in the face of all of that. If there isn’t, it’s not worth it. But if there is, strap in for the challenges and the rewards that come with them! Kind of like life in general, right?

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
In-person & online counseling for women, couples, children, and individuals across Ohio with concerns such as anxiety, trauma, depression, grief, chronic pain or simply feeling stuck. At Root & Bloom Counseling and Wellness, I work with individuals and groups who are ready to move beyond survival and into growth. Whether you’re navigating stress, trauma, or relationship struggles, we meet you with warmth, curiosity, and a deep respect for your lived experience. We bring clinical expertise and a deep commitment to meeting clients where they are, to help them reconnect, heal, and grow into fuller versions of themselves. We will walk with you through the places that don’t feel friendly into places with much more clarity and freedom. Clients choose Root & Bloom because they often feel more in touch with their emotions, boundaries, and sense of self. We’re here to support your growth, rooted in trust, blooming in your time.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think that risk is sometimes necessary. Just the question alone can bring up a feeling in my stomach that feels unsettled. But risk is something that we live with daily, if we’re living at all. Walking out the door can be a risk, sending my children to school can be a risk, taking my dog to be spayed is a risk.

But we cannot let fear run our lives. Being paralyzed by fear is not living a life fully lived. There is something that I always used to say from my yoga days and that is that the difference between fear and excitement is breath. I’m not sure where I first heard it, and I apologize to anyone who thinks that I stole it… because it resonated and stuck with me. That doesn’t mean to not listen to your gut, taking dangerous risks and making sure that the risk is worth it. You must be willing to deal with the risk and not to blame others when it doesn’t go your way.

But risk is stepping into possibility. If I didn’t risk failure, how could I succeed? If I didn’t risk heartbreak, how could I be in love? If I didn’t risk letting go control of those I love, how could they fully live? One of my favorite all time quotes is “I am large. I contain multitudes” (Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself”, Leaves of Grass). We must embrace all of our parts and this includes risk, most definitely.

Pricing:

• 135/hr individual
• 175/hr couples
• Talk to us about sliding scale for those who may need it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rootandbloomcounselingohio.com/
• Instagram: rootandbloomcounseling
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574887502404
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-grove-74330411/