I believe in the importance of weaving love into pain processing: feeling love, learning love, untangling its gnarly interpretations. It is the absence of love that was the stage for the pain.

Welcome! I Am April Shackelford, LMSW

Michigan Therapist at Sacred Surrender Healing & Therapy

The beautiful value of dancing with life: to breath, to move, dig deep & play: to come into something that is on your heart either while, or following, a time of nurturing yourself.

I have created this space to place into the world what lies in my heart: a supportive, honest, safe, loving, tender space for people to transform the relationship they hold with themselves and the world around them. A place to bring people into their heart, to be lead with their heart.

You are here because you are looking for someone that you can jive with being present to all of you and finding that person for you is a deeply personal decision. Finding the right helper, can come in through a feeling or something that is read that stands out to you or even the energy you feel coming through the website. I know that it can show up in different ways and if there is any way in which something in your time here resonates for you in working together, please feel free to reach out to me at 248-716-0624. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been helping people for over 16 years feel liberated in making contact with who they truly are, underneath the layers of conditioning and experiences that can feel binding; to begin to dance with life, to feel free to walk this plane embodying who they are with confidence and without guilt or judgment; helping people open their heart, emotional and energy body up to be able to experience life in a way that honors them.

Michigan Therapist with a Heart Based, Compassionate & Gentle Approach to Healing

I believe that the heart holds powerful healing medicine and is an important key to unlocking what longs to be heard and seen within you. Together, we gently, collaboratively and slowly explore the parts of you longing to be seen and heard, your own consciousness and how past hurts and deeply embedded imprints have shaped the ways you care for others, often at the cost of your own needs and the way you care for and hold a relationship with yourself. The work we do together centers on bringing awareness to these patterns not by forcing change, but by meeting them with curiosity, kindness, and respect for the wisdom of your system.

Many people I connect to seeking therapy share with me that they feel drained, disconnected, or unsure of who they are beyond what they give to others, needing more time to take care of themselves or are feeling isolated. In our work, we honor those protective strategies, the ways you’ve learned to stay safe, while gently inviting in exploring new possibilities and what that looks like for you cued by your own internal guidance.

My Approach & Therapy Style

Therapy sessions with me are designed to gently get to the root of what’s bringing you here — not just the symptoms on the surface, but the deeper experiences, emotions, and patterns that have shaped how you move through life. Together, we create space to slow down and listen to what’s really happening underneath the struggle, so you can begin to understand yourself in a fuller, kinder way.

My therapy style is gentle, honest, direct, compassionate, and heart-based. I believe in meeting you exactly where you are, without judgment or pressure to be anywhere else. At times, that means offering direct reflections or truths that bring clarity. Other times, it means sitting together in stillness, noticing what your body or heart is trying to say.

Because this work is deeply rooted in connection and presence, I often bring in what’s arriving in the moment, and sometimes that includes music. Music and sound have played such a powerful role in my own healing, and I’ve found them both to be supportive while being present to what is alive and a beautiful bridge to the body, mind, heart and soul. During our time together, I may guide you to sound what energy or emotion that arises in what we are uncovering or share a song that comes through intuitively (clairaudience) or one that resonates with the energy or topic we’re exploring. Sometimes, that means simply listening, deepening or attuning; other times, it might mean letting go and moving, even dancing, when the moment feels right. Music and sound become another way to help support you to open, release, and reconnect.

I use the skills I have attained through clinical & personal practice with the advanced intuition & somatic awareness that I have developed through the years to aid in guiding others:

• To their own unique wisdom, guidance & resourcing

• To disassociated aspects of themselves that are present & running the show, yet consciously unidentified, in day-to-day life

• To dive into a deeper sense of truth in their process, to go directly to & uncover the root of the pain, cycle or symptom.

• To tune into their heart & the blocks, beliefs or conditions guarding it.

I believe that you can heal psychological, physical & emotional rupture at its root to create lasting change.

I believe that healing needs to include silliness, fun, & pleasure (I know, “weird” or maybe even, “what is that?” for my high achievers and first-born people out there) :-)

In The World Outside of Our Work Together

Outside of my helping practice, I am an engaged solo mom of two kids and open to the wisdom the relationship I have with them teaches me. I am a lifelong learner who loves reading, exploring love, shadow, somatic & soul-based consciousness, roller-skating (yes, in 40-degree weather, as long as the roads are clear), dancing, toning, singing & polyphonic singing (still learning) and hangs onto heart-based facts, such as: Did You Know the Heart Is the First Functional Organ to Develop in an Embryo?! I inquire daily within my body and find there are many truths it longs to share with me: they can be different from the paths my mind would choose. These passions inform how I practice, viewing therapy as a creative art that naturally draws in curiosity, movement, sound, darkness, light, expansion, contraction, courage, and compassion.

I say this to share with you that beyond the professional experience and training attained, I have spent over 20 years in self-exploration, self-education and healing in drum circles, sweat lodges, red tents, being mentored, (at times humbly listening and other times righteously ignoring), breathwork circles, actively doing the work in varying forms of therapy, being a part of and creating ritual and ceremony, continuing to expand on what taking deep responsibility for my life looks like, moving my body, toning and singing (sometimes bellowing and yelling) to feel, to hear myself, to see myself, to become real in myself, to embody what I seek in my heart and soul and who I am.

If Something In You Is Ready To Open, Let Us Begin

I’d be honored to connect with you. If you’re looking for an online Michigan therapist and what I offer, the energy of who I am resonates with you, and you would like to learn more or take the next step, I offer a free 20-minute consultation so we can chat about and feel into what you need support through and if what I bring is a good fit.

.

I Believe That Whoever We Work With For Our Healing Needs To Have Done or Be Doing Their Own Healing Work.

Background & Trainings

Master’s Degree from Michigan State University in Clinical Social Work

Bachelor’s Degree from Baker College in Human Services 2008

Certified Clinical Trauma Professional 2023

Internal Family Systems Informed (Ongoing)

Shamanic Practitioner 2014

Reiki Practitioner Level II Hazel Thompson, 2013

Certified Somatic Trauma Healer Abi Blakeslee, 2024

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Training 2011

Certified Addiction and Drug Counselor Certification 2008-2021

Women’s Pleasure Bootcamp with So Many Incredible Woman & Regena Thomashauer 2020

The Pathwork Foundation Lecture Studies

Certified Gestational Healer Training 2025 with Melanie Swan, Medicine Woman & International Womb Healer

Medical Social Worker 2012-2014

Women’s Group Therapy Facilitator & Detox Facility Group Educator 2011-2014

Care Manager Blue Cross Blue Shield 2019-2021

Utilization Review for Macomb County Community Mental Health 2017-2019

Immigration Evaluation Assessment Certification Marc Sadoff, 2025

Trauma Informed Study : The Trauma Model by Colin Ross & Comprehensive Resource Modeling by Lisa Schwartz (Ongoing)

Clinical Supervision Training with George Harmaan, 2023

(Somatic Sensorimotor Awareness and Intuition- Life Experience being in this body & ongoing)