We want to create a space, a voice, to our experiences with life, being a clinician, and our often-chosen form of self-care—travel.
Wellness-around-the-world.com is a wellness blog space where we, Jo & Julie, discuss wellness practices around the world. This blog was intended to create a space, a voice, to our experiences with life, being a clinician, and our often-chosen form of self-care—travel. Our mixture of interests include Jo’s love of culture, art, and history as well as Julie’s love of culture, people, traditions, and food.
We found that we are a good travel match and love to travel with our adventurous families. We recognize our privilege of experiencing these forms of self-care such as travel and other wellness practices. This is not intended to speak for all individuals and is limited to our experience. Yet, it is our hope that within the exploration of wellness, other voices will be lifted, honored, respected, and appreciated. We value the richness of diverse cultures and experiences.
Our discussions will include our personal and professional exploration, experience, and reflections on wellness as well as the stories and experiences of others.
The idea for this website started as a discussion in deck loungers in Phoenix, AZ while we were exploring the southwest United States over Christmas in 2020. Our families are close and this was just one of the many trips that we have taken as a group of 8. We talked about the concept of wellness, how we practice wellness as people, mom’s, and clinician’s as well as how others’ practice wellness.
Travel is a big part of both of our lives and wellness practice yet, there are many different types of wellness at home and around the world that we are excited to explore. We hope that the wellness work we do here will bring enjoyment, curiosity, and will also help you explore your own wellness practices.
So, follow us, Julie and Jo, as we navigate this minefield of work, family, travel, and keeping our balance as best we can. Subscribe to get updates and comment as often as you can. If you do something different/differently than us and have a suggestion, we want to know about it. Let’s build a community of care and love for each other and our wellness practices, because we all need that.
I am a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a mental health professional. I have many roles much like everyone else. I have a Maters in Counseling Psychology as well as a PhD in IO Psychology and I worked very hard to get to this point in my career. I am a curious person, a researcher, a lover of people, and I may be a bit over functioning at times, we all have our stuff ;). I love music, food, and adventure. I love kindness and realness in all things human. I also have a soft spot for the original sour patch kids.
While I know that individual wellness practices are only one piece of the puzzle, I have spent many years working at this piece. Over the years, I have experienced times when I have taken care of myself better than others and times when I found myself dangerously close to Burnout. I hope that with this blog I can share parts of my journey that may be supportive and I also hope I can share what I learn from others in my exploration of wellness. I am excited to collaborate with Jo in this work. We are very different people yet join in such a fun, unique way. I hope you will enjoy this work as much as I will.
Age: 41 years
Sign: Scorpio
Grew up and lives in: West Michigan
Fellow Travelers: Dave and our 3 kids
Pets: My favorite two orange kitties
Most Used Wellness Practice: mindfulness, massage, and coffee
Wellness practice that I can’t seem to do even though it makes me feel good: Running!
Owner and operator of Julie Schillim LLC
I’m a clinician that believes that finding your passion and practicing individual wellness will make all the difference in your life and career. I’ve been working as a social worker in mental health for over 20 years and I have been able to avoid burn out so far— I believe that wellness and deliberate choices in life have made this possible.
I don’t want to wait for retirement to get out and see all the things I want to see and learn about. So, travel is the passion I cultivate and I’ve learned to build the rest of my life around giving that passion life. Maybe your passion is walking your dog, binging shows, or organizing your closet (if so, please come to my house because I just can’t). I hope that the wellness work we do here will add to your experience so you can be more centered and mindful in your day.
I’m lucky enough to have a life partner who also works to live instead of lives to work. We push each other to do the things that matter. We’ve created a 7 year old who also thinks that life is about doing things that you love….which could backfire immensely when I stop and think about it.
Age: 48 years
Sign: Scorpio
Grew up in: Texas
Lives in: Central Michigan
Fellow Travelers: John and Oscar
Pets: CeCe the scaredy cat
Most Used Wellness practice: massage
Wellness practice that I can’t seem to do even though it makes me feel good: exercise (any kind)
Owner and operator of Mindful Direction Counseling