Aug 09 The Wellness Collective has innovative approach to connect patients with therapists
Tribune-Review – Shanon Williams was joking with her husband and business partner Chris about how “speed dating” to connect with therapists and wellness practitioners would be interesting.
The founders of The Wellness Collective made the hypothetical a reality with Mental Wellness Speed Dating.
In a time when mental health is at the forefront, especially as gymnast Simone Biles credits her Olympic success to staying consistent with her therapy sessions and pursuing mental wellness, there is a renewed focus on the subject.
Even for someone pursuing mental wellness, finding a practitioner can still be difficult because it is relational, Williams, 35, explained.
“Calling different therapists to try and find someone to see can be very stressful,” Williams said. “Even as someone in the field, it can still take up to a year to find someone.”
In early July, The Wellness Collective held its first Mental Wellness Speed Dating event of the season, partnering with Kangaroo Birthing & Maternity Concierge Co. and Royally Fit’s annual Wellness Retreat to focus on mental health support for new and expecting mothers.
Mental Wellness Speed Dating events are confidential — participants do not see each other or know who is there — only the practitioner who matches with the person will know. After an introduction to the Wellness Collective, participants get seven minutes of one-on-one.
“We have found this has been way more successful than cold calling,” Williams said.
For underinsured people who match with a practitioner or those who match with one who does not take their insurance, Wellness Collective, thanks to a partnership with Staunton Farm Foundation, provides six sessions for free.
Dr. Darla Timbo of Atlas Counseling Services recalled participating in the inaugural Mental Wellness Speed Dating.
“It was excellent for me. I think that what Shanon has done is amazing,” Timbo said. “It allows people to talk to clinicians and kind of get a feel for the potential therapeutic relationship or bond.”
It’s a brief, solution-focused approach to therapy.
“You get to the meat of the issue. Then you leave the client with some tools and resources to go forward and implement in their own lives,” Timbo said.
For Williams, wellness is a layered state of internal and external balance.
“People have to have their basic needs met. We can’t expect people to be happy and sunshiny in the community if they’re hungry,” she said.
There needs to be systemic change, and for Williams, that means ensuring basic needs are met by mutual aid. Additionally, addressing internal issues that people can’t see but are very real is crucial.
“The oppression and racism are so embedded in the culture in Pittsburgh. I think it’s a beautiful place. It’s my home. I also recognize, especially in adulthood, that there are limitations for those who are Black … it can be really difficult as a Black person with a Black body, and that has been an interesting reality to carry,” Williams said.
Williams grew up on the North Side. When she was a teenager, her mom was in two back-to-back car accidents and was turned down for social safety net resources. Her mother didn’t qualify on paper, but the needs were there. They don’t come from a great family unit, Williams said.
“It was disorienting for me — watching our family choose not to support us and then seeing all these social services fail us,” Williams said.
Williams recalls she and her mom were a week away from being street homeless, but they found an opening in Spring Hill project housing. She didn’t have the language for the feelings she felt as a teenager, which she now knows to be anxiety, unspecified bipolar disorder and complex trauma.
“My nervous system was constantly on high. I was constantly vibrating,” she said.
As a social worker, being the one telling people no because of limitations in the field was triggering for her because she knew people needed help.
“That was too much for me,” she said.
There were times when she could not help people but when she took her social work hat off, she often helped the very people she may have denied earlier find a solution.
“I got in the habit of saying, ‘Okay, we can’t help you, but as your neighbor, I can help you.’”
Eventually, she built a community support system, the foundation of The Wellness Collective.
“We’re neighbors. We should all be supporting each other,” Williams said.
The Wellness Collective focuses on all aspects of wellness — labs, external programs like MWSD, social enterprises like By Any Beans Necessary (a mobile lounge cafe), mutual aid and community support. Williams recommends becoming a member to experience the fullness of their offerings. An individual membership starts at $8 per month.
“Mental health is also responsible for how our communities function,” Williams said.
Williams and her husband continue to explore how to nurture the space and make it safe. She commits to being compassionate in a very real way.
“A lot of folks are coming into mental health for the first time, and it can be scary. We want to lessen those barriers,” Williams said.