Ellen Smalley is the owner of Creekside and a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion, with a minor in Nutrition, from The University of Alabama, and her master’s degree in Exercise Physiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also spent several years working in cardiac rehabilitation, both in Birmingham and at FirstHealth in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Her work today is deeply shaped by her life outside of it. Ellen and her husband are raising three neurodivergent teenagers, and for a long time, that experience felt isolating. The day-to-day demands, the uncertainty, and the constant effort to support everyone else slowly took a toll on her own health. She found herself exhausted, anxious, and struggling to figure out what taking care of herself was even supposed to look like in the middle of it all.

That experience is what shifted the way she approaches health and wellness.

As a certified Neurodiversity Coach, Ellen now helps clients build systems that actually fit their lives, especially when life doesn’t follow a predictable or “ideal” routine. Her work focuses on reducing daily stress, supporting more authentic ways of functioning, and helping clients move away from constant pressure and burnout.

She brings both professional expertise and real-life understanding to her work, with a focus on helping people feel better in ways that are sustainable, not just in theory, but in practice.