Care that grows with you.
Holistic, collaborative, and paced to your real life.
This is our Empowering the Best home: a collaborative network of aligned providers in Petoskey, Michigan, founded and led by an integrative health occupational therapist. We presently host occupational therapy and mental health therapy, in person in Northern Michigan and through virtual care.
Each of our providers partners with you and your family to support your real goals, at a pace that honors how healing actually happens. You're met where you are, and supported as you move forward.
Healing is layered: mind, body, heart, and spirit. Occupational therapy has always seen the whole person, including the values and beliefs that give daily life its meaning. Our care is skilled, evidence-based, and within each provider's scope and license, and it honors every layer you bring. Thankfully, there are helpers and healers ready to walk alongside us through our seasons of change and renewal.
Carla and many of our providers are patients as well as providers, so we know firsthand what it takes to heal. We believe there can be real health and care in healthcare, for clients and providers alike. Because care works best when everyone is well. You, your family, and the providers walking alongside you.
We value our neighbors, far and wide. We want easier options, access, and connections to healing services, so we share the providers and practitioners we value and recommend in our Collaborative Network.
Paying for care shouldn't be an extra burden. Carla, our founder and integrative health OT, accepts many insurance plans, with more approvals growing all the time. We're actively adding plans for every provider on our team, too. You'll find each provider's current insurance summary on our Team page. Don't see your plan, or have a question? Please reach out. All questions and ideas are welcome, and you're always welcome to text us directly at 231.487.2244.
Welcome. We invite you to grow with us.
Everyday growth and participation
Our care is welcoming, inclusive, and grounded in best practice. Every person, every body, and every family belongs here. Together, we support the full range of performance skills, sensory processing, regulation, communication, and daily living, so you, your child, or your teen can grow, participate, and thrive in the life you want.
Recovery and healing
When life brings unexpected setbacks, injuries, or new diagnoses, our team walks alongside you through recovery and healing. Steady, experienced support as you rebuild confidence and reclaim what matters most.
Care across our lifespan
You and your family receive care that is practical, connected, and built around your real life, your real goals, and your unique journey from childhood through adulthood.
A collective within
Collaboration beyond. Inside Empowering the Best, our occupational therapy and mental health providers work as a true collective. Beyond our walls, we collaborate with community partners, referring providers, and local organizations, because care is always strongest when it extends across the full circle of a person's life.
For helpers and healers
We welcome growing with additional helpers and healers who are growth-minded, respect their own scope and scale, and want to work together within a network of healers. That could include speech-language pathology and physical therapy providers ready for a private practice community with in-network access, along with respite and caregiver support and whole-person healing practitioners.
You may also request to be added to our Collaborative Network. We respect scope of practice and honor professional licenses. No silos needed here. Come as you are, and bring what you know. Healing is healthier in community.
Valued
Every person who learns and grows with us, whether in our studio, at home, virtually, or through a free resource, is seen as a whole person, not a diagnosis or a checklist. Who you are, what matters to you, and how you experience the world all shape your care. Our neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed approach means you're met with respect, curiosity, and care, exactly as you are.
Supported
Real life is complex. That is why our collective, founded by an integrative health OT, brings together aligned providers working collaboratively around you. From autism and ADHD to sensory processing differences, developmental delays, anxiety, pelvic health, activities of daily living, pain, and injury recovery, we support the whole person of all ages, in-person, virtually, in groups, and through our free and paid resources.
Grounded Growth
"Grow through what you go through."
Here, science meets art. The science is evidence-based practice, clear scope, and professional licenses we honor. The art is how we listen, pace, and create care with you, because healing happens through doing: play, learning, connection, work, and rest, the everyday occupations that make up a life. From childhood through adulthood, through one-on-one sessions, groups, or resources you use on your own time, we build care around what matters to you and what you can hold today. It is ethical, sound, and safe, and it grows as you do.
We meet you where you are:
In-studio · 231 State St., Suite 5, Petoskey, MI 49770. A welcoming, sensory-considered space in the heart of Northern Michigan.
In-home and community · We come to you. Home visits, school-based support, and community-based services across Petoskey and Northern Michigan.
Virtual nationwide · Telehealth available across Michigan and nationwide for all disciplines where licensure permits. Same quality of care, wherever you are.
Hear from the families we serve. Read our google reviews below: