About

Meg (she / they)

I was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan, on Anishinaabe land known as Northern Michigan to settler colonial people. Introduced to the healing relationships of animals, nature and landscapes from birth onwards, I grew up on a small farm with my parents who established their own local business located in an old farmhouse turned veterinary practice.

Starting out my professional career as a trained dancer and choreographer, I was called towards arts activism and social justice work. I am a Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) Associate Alumna, through which I facilitated theater and creative writing workshops in Detroit, MI prisons and inner city high schools. Pursuing a career as an interdisciplinary teaching artist, I relocated to Seattle, WA, where I produced and directed large scale movement theatre installations, and completed international artist residencies in both Mexico and Guatemala.

My relationships with animals, experiences in nature as well as work in the arts and with children attending an after school program in Guatemala, fuelled my path towards achieving my Master of Education with a focus in Youth Development Leadership, along with a Graduate Minor in Integrative Therapies and Healing Practices focused in Animal-Assisted Services. In addition, I completed my Master of Social Work with a focus in Clinical Mental Health as well as Children and Families. Further, I am completing an Interdisciplinary Certificate in Trauma Studies through the University of Minnesota. I am licensed in 2021 as a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), and I am currently licensed in the states of Michigan and Minnesota

I have been working with children, adolescents, families and caregivers in day treatment, intermediate school districts, elementary school and university settings since 2013.

My passion is in creating positive, equitable, and inclusive reparative experiences for individuals and families, while working with diverse communities who have experienced chronic stress and trauma. I lead with relationship, warmth, humility, partnership, creativity, empathy and openness. I have special interest, training and experience in the following areas: complex, chronic and intergenerational trauma, postpartum and parenting, caregiver/child relationships, early childhood development, attachment, issues related to sexual trauma, abuse and incest, addiction, oppression, shame and guilt, gender and sexual identity, LGBTQIA+, depression, anxiety, boundary development and differentiation, grief and loss, self worth, body worth, somatic healing and embodied resilience.

I am an intuitive, empath and spiritual naturalist, and I identify as an antiracist, white, racialized, queer, pansexual, neuroexpansive person and adult surthriver of childhood trauma.

Care-O-Van

Care-O-Van is a mobile mental health service platform, partnering with schools, private farms and public parks to facilitate learning and healing.

As a variation to traditional in-home, outpatient and school-linked mental health services, Care-O-Van provides innovative, accessible and adaptive therapeutic support to children, individuals and families, specialized in offering an integration of nature, play, arts, music, culinary and movement based therapies.

Created within a renovated school bus, Care-O-Van is an innovative therapeutic space; a school bus turned into a play, art and experiential therapy office. As a mobile therapy platform, Care-O-Van can further enable access to the therapeutic benefits of working with animals, natural landscapes and the outdoors, by providing scheduled services in a variety of locations and therapeutic landscapes.

AVEC Care Farm

AVEC Care Farm, is a private 4 acre Care Farm located in Traverse City, MI, at the base of the Leelanau Peninsula, and within the residential area of the Cherry Bend neighborhood. AVEC Care Farm is the home to a small herd of 4 llamas, individually named Sheepdog, Fish, Pepito, and Sisu, as well as a small flock of chickens named Marge and Fuego, and a rabbit named Bruno. Family owned, AVEC Care Farm is located in the proximity of Meg Mertaugh-Graber’s own home residence, where she lives with her 2-legged as well as 4-legged family members.

In addition, AVEC Care Farm is the home-base for, and primary farm partner of Care-O-Van, PLLC. At AVEC Care Farm, Care-O-Van, PLLC, provides animal-assisted services, in addition to several experiential therapeutic methods. The animal-assisted services provided, include working with the AVEC Care Farm llamas and/or chickens, as co-facilitators of and partners within the therapeutic experience. Due to this inclusion, Care-O-Van’s services are unique and look very different from a more traditional therapeutic service.