Tyler Schueffner, LPC-IT
Greetings, my name is Tyler Schueffner and welcome to Akela's Den. I have spent the past 20+ years providing direct service to a wide variety of individuals and communities. From runaway, homeless, and adjudicated teens and young adults, to families and caretakers, to aging and elderly adults.
My path to the helping and healing profession has been a long, winding, and unique journey. I grew up in a blue-collar town, in a blue-collar family, doing blue-collar work. I struggled in school, had limited goals and ambitions, and generally struggled to figure out who I was, what I wanted, and where I was going. A few weeks after I graduated from high school I left my home for the US Air Force.
During my time in military service, life continued to change, evolve, and challenge me. If I am being completely honest, I was not too keen on the "adulting" thing. I, like most young people was negotiating my understanding of the world, my feelings, fears, insecurities, hopes, dreams, and goals. At times I felt like a small boat in a vast sea with no sail and no rudder.
With time, experience, some luck, and a great deal of support I found that my path was not what it had seemed when I was younger. I was becoming more conscious, more aware, and more curious about the path in front of me and found that those earlier experiences taught me a great deal about resilience. With significant guidance, pain, suffering, resistance, and finally growth, I began to discover a path to healing and helping.
Blending counseling skills, with natural interpersonal abilities, a desire to be helpful, a love of story, narratives, history, creativity, and a healthy imagination I found a calling to provide guidance, support, and coaching to others.
Life is not easy. It is confounding and painful more often then not, but it is also profoundly interesting and beautiful. Finding the gold among the decay, the heartache, the grief, and the fear is vital to our experiences of life and what it means to live.
The journey may not be what you thought it would be, but perhaps our views has been veiled, blocked, or altered. If you are interested in changing the inner and outer landscape, challenging the possibilities of what is... I invite you to reach out connect, and consider the possibilities of living!