Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley McIlwain, MA, LMFT.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I always found myself being the one caring for, comforting, and being a safe place for people to share what’s really going on in their lives. From the time I was a kid, people just came and shared their hearts with me. Things they couldn’t tell others about; they would tell me. That is where my heart and passion for people grew and realizing that I had an opportunity and a gifting to come alongside people with love, a listening ear, and genuine care. It was such an honor to hold people’s stories and heartaches, fears and doubts, questions and concerns.
That led me to pursue getting into the mental health field, and I chose to specialize in Marriage and Family Therapy, recognizing that so many issues stemmed from relationship issues. Once I went through all of the educational requirements, the economic turn in 2008 pushed me toward an unconventional path of utilizing my degree and passion. It was a very challenging and confusing time for me having worked so hard to get to a place to be a Marriage & Family Therapist but not having the outlet or opportunity to do so. So, I dup deeper into my faith and prayed so much asking the Lord to show me how I can make a difference with my life.
That time period is where I felt the prodding and leading to start Foundation Restoration, a nonprofit ministry that served the very foundation and heartbeat of society, marriages. The vision was to create a place with resources that would help people be healthy individuals and in-turn healthy marriages, in-turn healthy families, in-turn healthy communities, and ultimately a healthy society.
That was 15 years ago (as of May) that I was able to officially get my 501c3 status for Foundation Restoration! For the past 15 years, I have been able to watch this ministry grow and thrive, and we have continued to grow our team, resources, professional therapy, events, and overall services to care for our community with clinical expertise and a biblical perspective.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Goodness, no. I had no clue about the nonprofit world or what that entailed, and I have faced so many challenges along the way. No financial resources made everything so hard, and I had to figure out a million things along the way on my own through trial and error. It was and is challenging to get people to donate, realizing we absolutely depend and rely on those to keep our lights on and keep serving, let alone growing, our services.
Self-doubt, outside attacks, and a million things to figure out at any given time on a shoe string budget have made it a very challenging journey that has threatened to break me more times than I can count over the past 15 years. Learning how to be a good leader and truly having the right people alongside of you has been difficult to discern and learn. Wearing so many hats at any given time with what feels like a 70 lane superhighway in my mind at all times takes a toll. It is a constant pivoting and problem-solving journey, but with my passion, faith, and key support system, I have weathered each storm.
The biggest challenge for a nonprofit is truly getting people to financially partner with you to enable and sustain the mission you are so passionate to provide. If anyone feels compelled to support our nonprofit ministry of providing professional therapy and resources to individuals, couples, and families with clinical expertise and a biblical perspective, they can make tax-deductible donations at https://foundationrestoration.org/donate/.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist that started my nonprofit organization called Foundation Restoration 15 years ago. We specialize in marrying clinical expertise with a biblical perspective in a compassionate environment with excellence. We are known for our professional therapy, podcast, events, and being people who genuinely CARE about people and what we do. We are also known for our Real Talk podcast, Annual Second Chance Prom for adults, our Kids Market, and other events. We love to pair a good time with excellence! If we can laugh and smile while making others do the same with a side of challenging, helping, and growing people, it’s a win, win, win!
This nonprofit ministry has been a hard journey marked with a lot of challenges, loneliness, and self-doubt, but in the end, I am so proud to have endured and never lost sight of the precious value of the human life and the opportunity to walk alongside of people through anything and everything until they arrive at where they are trying to go. I am SO proud of the endurance to face all adversity with faith, passion, and resolve for 15 years now. To see thousands of lives, marriages, and families saved and impacted is the single greatest joy and reward that exists!
My passion and resolve have never waned even in the darkest hours of serving others, and that genuine desire to be a blessing and live a life of purpose and intention with every single interaction big or small is what sets me and this ministry apart. You will find genuine people equipped with expertise, full of compassion, and displaying the love of Jesus in everything we do. Like a lighthouse, we shine our light into the darkest places.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My family has been the biggest source of strength to keep me keeping on in this journey. Prayer, encouragement, financial support, emotional support, and just always believing in me when no one else did, including myself, has made the biggest difference. They see the behind the scenes grind and toll, but they also know better than anyone else, the deep passion I have for this ministry and the work we do. Leadership is lonely at times, and I am grateful for my family members that provide a safe place to pour my heart out or just a shoulder to cry on. I know my family is praying for me constantly, and that makes all the difference.
Our donors, volunteers, team, board members, prayer warriors, sponsors, community partners, and everyone who has stood in support of us in 1 way or another these past 15 years are all while we are still here. We couldn’t do it without that love, support, and partnership! Every donation is rejoiced over. Every word of encouragement is clung to. Every volunteer is treasured. Every person is vital in fighting the good fight. My team works so hard, and I am grateful for their diligence to fulfill the mission of this ministry.
And truly, this was God’s vision, and I have just tried to steward well what He invited me into with this life-changing, life-saving work! It is my Savior, Jesus who gets all the glory. He sustains me in the impossible. He makes me strong when I am oh-so-weak. He has given me every gift, ability, and opportunity that I am just the paintbrush in the Artist’s hand. It is His life and perfect example that I follow. Being His hands and feet empowered by Him and full of love for all those He has created is what drives me. Two key Bible verses I use to guide my work:
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. -Matthew 5:16
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry – 1 Timothy 1:12
Contact Info:
- Website: www.foundationrestoration.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/FndRestoration, www.instagram.com/ashleytaralmft
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/FoundationRestoration
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundation-restoration-inc./
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/FndRestoration
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/FndRestoration
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/5OzIMeJTzXqAp4OhWCiHq2, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-talk/id1659688145
