Mariah Myton knows what it looks like when adversity passes from one generation to the next. She was born on the Flathead Reservation in Polson, Montana, and raised between Montana and Washington in a family that faced its share of hardship. She lost her stepdad in 2019. By then, she’d already come through a dangerous relationship, raised five kids largely on her own, and made the decision that her story wasn’t going to end the way it started.
That turning point came in 2013, when Myton went back to school. She eventually earned her master’s degree from MSUB in clinical rehabilitation and mental health counseling, then moved between states for internships and to fulfill an HRSA contract working in Oregon. Having returned to Montana multiple times as an adult, she ultimately felt called back for good, bringing with her credentials that read like someone who’s been preparing for exactly this moment: Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor, and Certified Rehabilitation Counselor.
But the plan was always to come back.
“Healing is possible, even after generations of trauma, addiction, and pain,” Myton says. “You can break the cycle, come home stronger, and help heal your family and community.”
That belief is the engine behind everything she’s building right now. Through Empower Counseling and Rehabilitation, the practice she founded, Myton is launching a series of three-day intensive family healing retreats in Hot Springs, Montana, running from June through September 2026. The retreats, called “Healing One Family, One Heart at a Time,” are designed for biological and chosen families working through trauma, addiction, grief, and relational challenges. Think therapeutic group sessions, somatic practices like yoga and breathwork, expressive arts, hot springs excursions, and structured recovery planning, all packed into a weekend roughly 30 minutes from Flathead Lake and less than two hours from Glacier National Park.
The team Myton has assembled reflects how seriously she’s treating this. Loretta J. Abbott, an LCSW, EMDR practitioner, and art therapist, facilitates therapeutic groups focused on family wellness and recovery. Jackie Evans, an E-RYT 500 yoga instructor, leads movement classes built around nervous system regulation and chronic pain management. James McClure, a painter and founder of The Brush & Chisel in Hot Springs, serves as the retreat’s lead artist. Caitlynn Myton serves as music coordinator, integrating piano and rhythmic grounding into the trauma-informed sessions. And Kelly Van Der Gang, a spiritual care counselor with nearly two decades of hospice and hospital experience, provides emotional and spiritual support throughout.
It’s a multidisciplinary approach that treats people as whole humans rather than a collection of symptoms. Myton’s framework touches biological, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions, which tracks with how she talks about addiction: as a family illness, not an individual failing.
What separates Myton from plenty of other clinicians doing good work is the personal stakes. She’s not approaching intergenerational trauma from a textbook. She lived through the kind of experiences her clients carry into sessions. She left a difficult chapter behind with kids depending on her and chose school over standing still. The retreat work she’s doing now isn’t a career pivot. It’s a dream she’s carried for over a decade, finally taking shape in the place where her own healing started.
Beyond the retreats, Myton also offers free support circles and individual remote therapy, lowering barriers for people who can’t afford or access traditional care. Her work also includes a Teen Dialectical Behavior Therapy group.
For someone who spent her early years watching difficult patterns shape her family’s story, Myton has spent the last decade rewriting it. Not by pretending the hard parts didn’t happen, but by turning them into something useful. Readers looking to connect with her work can visit Empower Counseling and Rehabilitation or find her on LinkedIn.
