Licensed Therapist & Emotional Support Cryptid
Together, Shelby and Marbles form a highly specialized therapeutic unit dedicated to emotional healing, personal growth, and occasionally staring at people until they become self-aware.
Shelby Nielson is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and founder of Flourish and Growth Counseling LLC, where he helps clients navigate trauma, anxiety, chronic illness, life stress, and the general psychological chaos of being a person. Known for balancing deep compassion with “respectfully, let’s unpack that shit,” Shelby creates a therapy environment that feels safe, authentic, and just unhinged enough to keep things human.
Working alongside him is Marbles, a 5-year-old F1bb Goldendoodle who has been assisting in therapy since she was 6 months old and has somehow become both a beloved support presence and the unofficial manager of the office. Wearing colorful scarves, beads. and rotating hairstyles like a tiny emotionally intelligent fashion influencer, Marbles specializes in silent emotional interventions, strategic leaning, and appearing next to clients exactly when comfort is needed most.
Shelby brings the clinical expertise.
Marbles brings the fluff-based nervous system regulation.
Together, they provide:
- Trauma-informed care
- Emotional support
- Occasional accidental comedy
- A suspiciously effective combination of therapy skills and golden retriever energy
Clients often arrive expecting a normal counseling experience and leave realizing they were emotionally profiled by both a therapist and a curly-haired dog in a scarf or pearls.
Honestly? It works.
Shelby
Shelby is what happens when a therapist evolves into a chaotic-good main character with a clipboard in one hand and unnervingly accurate insight in the other. Founder of Flourish and Growth Counseling (yes, you will be saying the full name), he specializes in helping people unpack their emotional baggage while somehow carrying a rotating inventory of his own hyper fixations like it’s a full-time job.
By day, he’s a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor—grounded, steady, hitting you with questions like “what’s coming up for you right now?” in a way that makes you question your entire existence (in a productive way). By night—and also kind of during the day—he’s refining presentations, adjusting flyer designs by 2 pixels, and deciding that the current color palette is almost right but not quite aligned with the vibe.
He has a deeply concerning ability to turn literally anything into a therapeutic metaphor. Dead phone battery? Burnout. Lost keys? Control issues. Someone replying “lol”? Emotional avoidance. There is no escape.
Known for creating support groups that sound like both a healing space and a band that would headline an indie festival (“Chronic Connections: Flourish Together”), Shelby operates at the intersection of high-level clinical skill and “hold on, I can make this look better.”
His hobbies include:
- Creating PDFs that are somehow both professional and emotionally validating
- Redesigning things that were already acceptable
- Following counseling compact updates like it’s breaking news
- Casually asking “is that actually serving you?” at times that feel both helpful and slightly threatening
If you meet him, expect to feel deeply understood… and also like you’ve accidentally entered a space where personal growth is inevitable.
Disclaimer: Side effects of interacting with Shelby may include increased self-awareness, improved coping skills, and an unexpected desire to optimize your entire life—gently, but firmly.
Marbles
Marbles is a 5-year-old F1bb Goldendoodle, part-time therapy assistant, full-time emotional support celebrity, and arguably the real force running the office at Flourish and Growth Counseling. Since beginning her career at the extremely advanced age of 6 months old, she has dedicated herself to the noble profession of accepting ear scratches while quietly healing emotional wounds.
Known for her fashionable scarves, radiant pearls, immaculate fluff management, and an ever-changing lineup of hairstyles, Marbles understands the importance of showing up professionally while still serving looks. She brings warmth, comfort, and just enough chaos to keep therapy sessions emotionally productive and aesthetically pleasing.
But beneath the adorable curls and accessorized professionalism lies a highly intuitive therapy dog who takes her role seriously. Marbles has an uncanny ability to sense when clients need support, often checking in at exactly the right moment, leaning against them, or quietly sitting nearby during difficult conversations. Whether someone is processing trauma, anxiety, grief, or life stressors, Marbles somehow knows when her presence is needed most.
Her therapeutic approach includes:
- Deep eye contact that feels spiritually invasive
- Strategic emotional leaning
- Silent judgment of anyone who says they’re “not really a dog person”
- Advanced grounding techniques through fluff distribution
Clients describe her as comforting, calming, and suspiciously emotionally intelligent. Shelby describes her as an excellent coworker who works primarily for compliments and snacks.
Despite her professional accomplishments, Marbles remains humble. She still enjoys the simple things in life:
- Receiving attention from literally everyone
- Modeling colorful scarves and pearls like it’s New York Fashion Week
- Monitoring the emotional state of the room at all times
- Casually becoming the favorite part of someone’s therapy session
In many ways, Marbles is more than a therapy dog—she’s a tiny, curly-haired emotional support supervisor with excellent instincts and incredible hair.
Growth
Healing isn’t about becoming a completely different person. It’s about learning how to survive your own chaos without letting it drive the car anymore.
Some days growth looks profound and life-changing. Other days it looks like drinking water, answering one email, and not spiraling because someone said “we need to talk.” Both count.
At Flourish and Growth Counseling LLC, Shelby and Marbles firmly believe that healing can be messy, uncomfortable, emotional, awkward, hilarious, and still completely valid. You do not need to have your life perfectly together to deserve support. You just need to keep showing up—even if you arrive emotionally held together by caffeine, avoidance, and pure determination.
Progress is not linear. Neither is Marbles when she hears a snack bag open.
The goal isn’t perfection.
The goal is learning how to breathe through the hard moments, reconnect with yourself, and build a life that actually feels like yours.
And if that process occasionally includes crying in therapy while a Goldendoodle in a scarf silently judges your coping mechanisms?
That’s called a healing environment.