About the
Perinatal Support Alliance
The Perinatal Support Alliance is a group of compassionate professionals, offering a safe and warm connection during the hard moments in pregnancy and parenting.
Our vision of the Alliance is to support, educate and empower individuals and families while decreasing the stigma around mental health and supporting overall wellness. We hope that through our offerings of both the warmline and support group, we can change the culture and create a greater sense of community and connectedness together. Together it will get better.
Emily S. Kohler
Emily is a licensed Clinical Social Worker with an endorsement in Infant Mental Health and a Perinatal Mental Health Certification. Emily's personal and professional experiences fuel her passion to promote and support healthy early relationships between parent's and their child(ren).
It is from her early experiences as a mother that Emily experienced intense anxiety related to her daughter's food allergies and intolerances. It is through her early parenting experiences that fueled her passion to support mothers during the perinatal period to become the best version of themselves while navigating the ever changing identity motherhood brings. Emily has three children and resides in Leelanau County with her family.
email: emily@chestnutservices.org
Shannon Olshove
Shannon works for Early On performing developmental evaluations for infants and toddlers. She has a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology, as well as specialized training in Perinatal Mood Disorders and Infant Mental Health. She has worked as a counselor at Pine Rest and formerly facilitated a Perinatal Adjustment Group, as well as several Mom Power attachment based parenting groups.
In addition to professional training, Shannon has personal experience with perinatal depression and anxiety that fuels her passion to help other parents during this precious, yet challenging period of parenthood.
email: solshove@northwested.org
Andrea Russell
Andrea is a clinically licensed social worker with a private practice in Traverse City and specializes in working with complications associated with early childhood trauma and women struggling with perinatal/postpartum depression and anxiety. Andrea is Michigan native who relocated to Traverse City just over 15 years ago having spent 5 years in Washington DC post graduate school. She is mother of 3 daughters, 16, 14 and 8 and has herself experienced postpartum depression after the birth of her oldest in 2004; despite having planned for a baby for several years Andrea living in a large city at the time became easily overwhelmed as a new mom feeling isolated from a much needed network of family and friends. Thankfully with support and intervention Andrea was able to recover from her symptoms and later give birth to two other children without complications associated with anxiety and depression. As a result of this personal experience Andrea continues to be passionate about the need to support families with new babies understanding deeply the importance of early attachment between infants and primary caregivers. Andrea has been endorsed at a level 3 for Infant Mental Health since 2009 and spent 10 years working as a specialist providing home based therapy to vulnerable populations in the Community Mental Health system. While Andrea feels strongly that northern Michigan is an incredible place to raise children she also recognizes that there are gaps in services for families with young children and that increased support for families adjusting to a new baby is imperative. She is excited to be able to collaborate with other experts in this field to form the Perinatal Support Alliance and continue building roots for a community that will provide compassionate and non-judgmental support.
email: therapy@andrearussell.org
Amanda Stowe
Amanda is a Leelanau County native, mother of three, therapist and nature lover. She has been working exclusively with families over the last 10 years and is passionate about supporting parents in becoming the parent they want to be. She has been a home visitor for both Parenting Communities and Maternal Infant Health Program, where she has supported many families during pregnancy and through the postpartum period. Amanda has been a facilitator of Mom Power and other parenting groups. She now has started her own private practice and is committed to supporting local families. Amanda is a licensed clinical social worker with an endorsement in Infant Mental Health. She has significant training in Perinatal Mood Disorders.
Amanda brings the experience of raising her own three children and understands many of the challenges families face. When Amanda’s first child was born, she was blind sighted with intense postpartum anxiety. This experience has been a catalyst for her strong passion to provide support for new families. She believes full-heartedly that healthy communities begin with supporting parents prenatally and through the postpartum period.