Growing up in Livingston, Mont., Melissa Coulier always felt most at home outside. So she went for walk — and invited everyone.
Joyful, exuberant and ever-ready to pluck life from a tree and share it with everyone in her path, she launched Recess Club to share her passion. Living with her husband, actor Dave Coulier, on Lake St. Clair, she carries an impressive set of credentials, including pain-free movement specialist, certified fitness instructor, brain-health trainer and more. Coulier, 44, sat down with Birmingham City Lifestyle to talk about the health journeys that have shaped both of their lives, and how all of it has profoundly influenced the work she does today — and the community she’s building for women who crave their own moments of joy.
BIRMINGHAM CITY LIFESTYLE How did you end up in Michigan?
MELISSA COULIER I met a man in Montana, and he swept me off my feet. I was a waitress in a restaurant and Dave came in on his way to a boys’ trip in Montana. We had instant chemistry. My parents were at another table, and my mom looks over and says, ‘Man, that guy looks an awful lot like Dave Coulier.’ I was like, no way! That guy’s way too cute to be Uncle Joey!
We dated for nine year, moved to Los Angeles, got married in 2014 and now we’re in Michigan.
Dave grew up in St. Clair Shores, and he really wanted to come back to Detroit, his family is here. And he always wanted to build a house on the lake, so he’s living his childhood dream.
BCL You’ve lived with lupus since your early twenties. What was that like in the beginning?
MC I was diagnosed in 2006. At the time, I knew that my career and my path was going to be in photography — I’d known since I was 11 years old. My grandma gifted me my very first camera, and that was it. Health and wellness wasn’t something I was thinking about. But at the time I was diagnosed, I was dealing with joint pain, chronic migraines, fibromyalgia, fluid in my joints, rashes. I was on eight different medications to help with the lupus side effects, and then a couple of those drugs were actually to help with the side effects of the medications. When I reflect on it now, it is so bonkers that I was medicating my medication.
BCL So what finally changed?
MC Dave, actually — indirectly. When the reboot of Fuller House was in production, he introduced me to Melanie Samuels, who worked with Dave. Melanie was moving out of production and into holistic wellness and nutrition. He kind of set us up on this friend date — he thought we’d be really good friends. We were on a hike one day and I was just opening up about lupus and how I deal with chronic pain, and she asked if I wanted to be her first client. That was it. Within three years of working with her and using food as medicine, I actually became pain-free. I was off all medication at that point.
BCL What did that process looked like?
MC We did a 60-day elimination of caffeine, sugar, gluten and processed foods. At first I was like, uh, that’s a big deal, because my favorite after-shoot treat to myself was going through McDonald’s to get french fries. But as we started adding certain things back, I realized that food truly is medicine. The way that eating a real whole-food diet transformed my life was everything. My migraines made me horribly ill. And my trigger ended up being refined sugar. The minute I cut sugar, they just disappeared. It was crazy.
The other thing that changed everything for me was bio-individuality — the idea that there’s no universal diet, that every body is completely different. Like many people, I was a dieter. If the Mediterranean diet came out, I’d try that — whatever’s trending. And as many find out, that’s not necessarily sustainable, so we crash on and off diets. Once you quiet the noise and everything starts to work the way that it’s intended — it was just mind-blowing to me. I told Melanie, we have to go into business together. I never thought I’d be in a body that was pain-free. We founded a company together, Live Well Lead Well, and we saw clients together. We still do event integration for wellness, but then I moved to Michigan. But I still want to do all the things, and help other people take control of their health.
BCL And then Dave was diagnosed.
MC Yeah. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, stage three, a year and a half ago. And then last fall, almost to the day, he was diagnosed with a second type of cancer, P16 Squamous Carcinoma of the throat. Every day’s different in our household.
BCL How did you take care of yourself through all of that?
MC Honestly, I just felt like I was kind of losing myself — I asked myself what brought me joy during that time. Between working and caregiving and in and out of hospitals, it was just so heavy. I have this girlfriend who’s local, Kate Milligan — she has a company called 1-Girl Revolution — and she had gone through something similar with her mom. She said to me, let’s go for a walk. For me, that was so nice — it was ‘let’s get you out of the house.’ We went walking around Belle Isle. I thought, gosh, this feels so good. I actually felt so much lighter in that moment.
BCL And being in nature is a big part of that for you?
MC Yes. There are times when I just have to be outside. I grew up in Livingston, Mont., population 7,000. My dad was a logger; when I was growing up, my family and I would spend the summers in the woods with him on job sites, creating different games. My parents, and my grandparents, were always telling us to go outside and play — I think that’s innately in me. If I’m inside too long, or I’m bored, I hear my grandmother’s voice telling me to go outside, use my imagination, create something. And I think that’s such a beautiful message, that I can appreciate now as an adult.
Nature is my healing place, the place I need. It’s like how someone craves ice cream — I crave nature. It’s finding joy in a simple thing. It’s like reclaiming recess for myself, and I thought it might be like that for other women. I told Kate, wouldn’t it be great to just reclaim recess? Just go walk, go do something that brings you joy. If you’re walking in a park and you feel called to get on a swing, get on the swing.
BCL And that became the Recess Club.
MC Kate said, Mel, just post a couple Meet-ups and if people show up, they show up. At least you’re walking and you’re getting your fix. So I just started doing it, and women started showing up. Everyone comes for a different reason, and everybody says the same thing when they leave: ‘I did not know how much I needed this.’ I launched officially in June of 2025, after we had just finished all of Dave’s chemotherapy and he had gotten the all-clear on his scans. When he was diagnosed with his second cancer in the fall, I took over all the day-to-day responsibilities so that he could go through radiation — he had 30 rounds, every single day downtown. So things got a little busy. I paused everything, and then I just had that calling again, that craving. I needed to do this again. I wanted to see if I can make this bigger, more robust, and service more people. So I started back up in March.
BCL What does a Recess Club event look like?
MC It’s designed primarily for women, and focuses on stepping into nature, unplugging from screens and restoring balance through movement, hiking, breath work and shared experiences. We gather in nearby parks, trails and dunes. I try to do at least two free events a month, and then a paid experience every other month. The free events are beginner-grade nature walks, usually no more than three miles, about an hour. The paid experiences include a little bit more — in April a five-mile walk, a meditation, nature bathing, lunch together. We’ve done a kayak experience. We have a Paint & Hike. Nature bathing comes from a Japanese practice called Shinrin-yoku — going into nature actually reduces your blood pressure and heart rate. I truly believe that it is that healing. Trees provide us life, right? Plants provide us life. There’s something to that. If we’re out on the trail and a tree calls to you, go put your hands on it. I encourage people to go give it a hug, soak up the healing.
BCL Who is the Recess Club for?
MC All women, from everywhere. It’s so hard for women who are in this in-between stage of caring for kids, caring for spouses, caring for parents, to find friends or community. We as women hold space for everyone — and it’s very rarely that we hold space for ourselves. One of the coolest things I see is other women that probably wouldn’t cross paths in any other area of life becoming friends and getting each other’s phone numbers. Watching other people connect on the trail — that’s what brings me so much joy.
Even if you think this isn’t for you — come anyway. It’s a great place to start. You’re not walking out onto a trail by yourself. You’re not stepping into an intimidating workout class. I lead every event, so you’re walking with an experienced leader, and we’re there to walk in community. No one’s left behind. You’re meeting a group of people outside who are genuinely there to find joy for an hour. You have to have joy with movement, otherwise you’re not going to move.
BCL Where do you see this going?
MC I’m a big dreamer. But I love how organic this has been, the way that it’s unfolding. I don’t want to force it in any direction. I love how the right people are finding it so that we can make these events accessible to everyone. I just want to make the largest positive impact that I possibly can while I’m here, and give more than I receive. That’s really it.
RECESS CLUB + BIRMINGHAM CITY LIFESTYLE
Melissa Coulier and Birmingham City Lifestyle are teaming up for our own Recess Club Event: A 1.5-hour evening walk on July 9 at Birmingham’s Linden Park and around the scenic Quarton Lake Loop for a mix of wooded trails, residential streets and opportunities to connect with fellow community members. To learn more about this event and Recess Club, follow Coulier on Instagram (@melissacoulier) or visit melissacoulier.com. Free summer meetups are scheduled monthly, with upcoming paid experiences in July and August.