SeekHealing was founded in 2018, follow along on the journey.
SeekHealing was founded in 2018, follow along on the journey.
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.
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.
Collaborating with neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Wurzman, trauma expert Dr. Gabor Mate, substance use recovery experts and leaders in communication and social dynamics theory from around the world, they formed SeekHealing to create a novel approach for systemic issues of addiction and loneliness: social health.
SeekHealing began in 2018 with the founding of its first local community in Asheville, North Carolina. What started with just eight seekers at the first Listening Training retreat quickly grew to 150 community members in the first year—and more than 500 by the end of 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and social isolation deepened under lockdown, demand for SeekHealing's offerings surged. The organization launched its online community in April 2020, which has since grown to serve thousands of people seeking connection and healing. In September 2021, SeekHealing opened its second local community in Waynesville, NC, through a partnership with VAYA Health and the Evergreen Foundation.
In 2022, related to the national economic downturn, SeekHealing experienced a cash flow crisis, and unfortunately had to lay off 50% of our staff (7 people). This move was devastating for those involved, as well as the organization as a whole and particularly the Asheville community. In spite of the hardships, everyone who lost their job remained connected to the community in some way either personally or professionally. And somehow, we still held over 1,100 events, though for nearly six months of the year everything was completely volunteer operated.
In 2023, SeekHealing continued to build innovative social health initiatives and trainings, creating fiscal and programmatic momentum. We stabilized staffing models and revenue streams to create sustainability, witnessed attendance and impact growth in all three communities, and expanded our facilitator and volunteer base to ensure that more community members feel seen, heard, and accepted when they are going through their darkest moments.
In 2024, SeekHealing embraced transformative change—shifting to a shared Executive Triad leadership model and expanding our impact across eight priority communities. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, we became a trusted source of trauma-informed support in Western North Carolina, offering sanctuary spaces and mobilizing community care. Through every challenge, we stayed rooted in our core truth: healing happens in community.
We facilitate meaningful human connection to address loneliness, strengthen social health, cultivate compassion, and equip people with the power to give and receive authentic support.
We do this to improve the effectiveness of mental health treatment systems and reduce deaths of despair.
We envision a world where everyone belongs, where resilient and compassionate communities thrive at a slower pace- – a world people no longer wish to escape, but live in together.
We're always open to meeting the humans who are inspired to join this movement and contribute their service energy to SeekHealing -- either in local communities or on our leadership and back-office teams.
Career opportunities are limited by locally-available grant funding in the communities they serve.
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