“We’ve Got Your 6” - Years in the Making

Written by: Jennifer Voorhaar, LCSW-C

September 1, 2018, I opened the doors to Hope and Healing with a plan to offer therapeutic services to the community knowing that healing and overall health and wellness was the goal. I knew that I didn’t have all of the answers and I knew that traditional “talk therapy” wasn’t the only tool. What I didn’t know was what the next months and ultimately years would bring. 

When my team and I started preparing for this year’s anniversary, we wanted to focus on health, wellness and celebrating our community. It seemed only fitting to share the sentiment with our community that the pilots from WWI shared, which was, “I’ve got your 6” ie: “I’ve got your back”.  With that came the six elements of wellness that I’d like to touch on today. If you haven’t already, I’d invite you to listen to The WingSpace Podcast for a short 6 episode series related to each of these components. I could go on for pages and pages about each of these components below. Instead, I’d like to share with you what Hope and Healing offers to our community to help support each area of wellness. 

The 6 Components of Wellness (as defined by University of New Hampshire) are:

Emotional

“Being kind to yourself as you recognize and experience a wide range of emotions”

Social

“Building and engaging in trusting, respectful, and authentic relationships”

Intellectual

“allowing your brain both stimulation and rest for critical thinking, curiosity and creativity.”

Occupational/Financial

“Pursuing a career path(s) that supports your goals, professional growth, and success” and “being able to meet basic needs and manage money for short and long term goals”

Spiritual

“connecting to your inner and outer worlds to support you in living your values and purpose.”

Physical 

“Knowing your body and giving it what it needs for health, healing, and energy”

The first one on this list is pretty clear, right? When you think about mental health therapy, addressing emotional needs is a given for most of us. But now that you see the list, could you consider how Hope and Healing could work with you on your journey to healing, health and wellness in all of these areas? Let me paint a picture for you:

You find yourself in a crossroads with choices to make, mixed emotions and jumbled up thoughts. So, you engage in mental health talk therapy with a provider, at Hope and Healing, or anywhere really as long as you’re doing the work. And, the therapist begins to ask questions, seek clarification, find missing puzzle pieces and help you form alternative solutions to your problems. As you talk you address:

Emotions

Identifying, expressing and managing emotions, learning the power of no, finding contentment in life, developing coping skills for stress management and relaxation

Relationships

Explore relationship patterns, consider dysfunction and establish healthy relationships, explore hobbies and interests and learn healthy communication

Thoughts

Learn that our thoughts following and event lead to our emotions and our behaviors, consider how to retrain your brain, thinking, processing and problem solving

Safety and Security

Consider how we provide for yourself and your family, find meaning in the work you are doing, establish safe and stable habits, explore future goals and dreams

Spirituality 

Use your faith and spiritual practices as tools for healing, explore spirituality, purpose and meaning for your life and future

Physical

Explore how you feed, fuel, move and rest your body, consider the connection between physical wellness and emotional wellness

And as we grow into our 7th year, we are constantly looking at how we can address each aspect of wellness for overall health. Not only do we have mental health therapy services at Hope and Healing, we also have massage, yoga, fitness, aromatherapy and pelvic floor physical therapy, all of which address various aspects of wellness in their own way. 

I’d invite you to consider where you can join the Hope and Healing community. I’m all about mental health therapy for everyone but maybe you start by checking out our class offerings, following along on social media for free content, tricks and tips or even stopping in to check out our retail area which includes Aromatherapy products by Essential Blends, LLC, shirts, journals, fun and funky mental health stickers, tumblers and more! 

We’ve been here for 6 and would be honored to be here for many, many more to provide health, wellness and a sense of community because as always, “we’ve got your 6”.