Who We Are

FOUNDATION

SeekHealing began when the founder’s close friend survived an opioid overdose and partnered with the founder to begin a healing journey. Like many others before them, the two discovered that meaningful social connection and community belonging are the most important elements of addiction recovery; yet are almost impossible to find after addiction treatment.

ACTION

Unfortunately, traditional 12-step recovery and other faith-based recovery communities often perpetuate experiences of shame and can feature social structures that are unwelcoming and/or hierarchical. Through a beautiful cosmic accident, the co-founders discovered that the kind of social connection that the brain needs in order to heal from trauma is actually something any human being can give to another: regardless of whether they identify as an “addict’ or not.

COLLABORATION

Collaborating with neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Wurzman, trauma expert Dr. Gabor Mate, substance use recovery experts and leaders in communication & social dynamics theory from around the world, they formed SeekHealing to create a novel approach for systemic issues of addiction and loneliness: social health.

GROWTH

In 2018, the founders established the first SeekHealing community in Asheville, NC -- among the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains in Western North Carolina in the USA. The community grew from 8 seekers at the first Listening Training retreat to 150 in the first year, and 500 by the end of 2019.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, demand for SeekHealing's services sky-rocketed as social isolation became even more widespread under government-mandated quarantine measures. The online community was born in April 2020, and has since grown to serve thousands of seekers online.

In September 2021, in partnership with VAYA Health and the Evergreen Foundation, SeekHealing opened the doors to its second local community in Waynesville, NC.

Meet the team

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Staff

Jennifer Nicolaisen

Executive Director, Co-founder

Melisa Gonzalez

Business Operations Manager

Alison Reeves

Community Engagement Lead - Online

Amy DeCamp

Marketing Coordinator

Greg Pitters

Waynesville’s Community Engagement Lead

Imani Ustawi

Asheville Community Connection Coordinator

Janie Gabbett

Chief Editor

Javonne Green

Seekhealing Community Intern

Joey Moore

Fundraising Coordinator

Joshua Ginsberg

Chief Technology Officer

Ramiro Flores

LatinX Community Building Coordinator

Raphael Schwartzman

Marketing Consultant

Sydney McGary

Facilitation Community Coordinator

Tikva Kingrea

Data Entry Ninja

Santosha Bouchard

Clubhouse Coordinator

Stephanie Moore

SeekHealing’s Community Intern

Coeur Lewis

Asheville’s Open House Coordinator

Monica Jones

LatinX Community Building Coordinator

Robert Epstein

Legal Counsel

Natalio CasaNueva

Web Developer

Sara Ness

Community Building Guru

Sarah Reid

Waynesville's Community Outreach Lead

Advisory Council

Gabor Maté, MD

Physician, renowned expert on addiction and compassionate care, bestselling author, international speaker

Rachel Wurzman, Ph.D

Director of Science

Andrew Weil, MD

Author of over a dozen books on alternative medicine, including several international bestsellers.

Bill White

Emeritus Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems, Former Board Chair of Recovery Communities United, and author or coauthor of 20 books and 400 papers on addiction.

Hilary Jacobs Hendel, DDS, LCSW

Trauma-informed Psychoanalyst, International Author, creator of The Change Triangle Tool for Emotional Health

Alan Muskat

Author and educator specializing in nondualism, Nonviolent Communication, and hunter-gatherer culture

Sara Ness

Founder and CEO of Authentic Revolution

Maureen McCarthy

Social Scientist and Co-Founder, Center for Collaborative Awareness

Zelle Nelson

Social Scientist and Co-Founder, Center for Collaborative Awareness

Mark Smith

Author, therapist, social work professor; background in trauma, attachment, group process, and narrative-based practice.

Peter Strong, MD

Board-certified in addiction psychiatry, expert in Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT). Former Medical Director of Hartford Dispensary, managing 13 clinics and 4000 patients.

Avrum G. Weiss, Ph.D

Psychotherapist, author, and teacher with more than 40 years of experience in relational psychology. Architect of experiential psychotherapy theory.

Board of Directors

Joshua Ginsberg

President

Technologist and entrepreneur; network system engineer and professional programmer. Software architect at Columbia University in New York.

Lauren Clark

Vice President

A lifelong advocate for humans and the planet they inhabit, Lauren leverages 11+ years of experience driving growth and social change for non-profits and purpose-driven organizations.

Lauren Tevelow

Secretary and Treasurer

Lauren served as an AmeriCorps Care Coordinator within a substance use disorder and MAT clinic and brings corporate experience in scaling initiatives of a large organization.

Joshua Franks

An entrepreneur with a focus on product development, marketing, and supply chain and distribution logistics, Joshua is committed to facilitating meaningful connection and radically authentic relationships.