LaGrange nonprofit provides mental health resources during Mental Health Awareness Month

LaGRANGE, Ga. (WRBL) – The Calumet Center for Healing and Attachment is a non-profit organization specializing in mental health services. There is a residential program for women recovering from abuse and trauma, as well as an outpatient program.

The center was launched by Program Director Kelly Camp and Chief Counselor Greta Cork in January 2017. Camp said the center prides itself on being an individualized program tailored to different needs. Women often make their own case plans and are supported by leaders like Camp and Cork.

“What we do here is kind of born out of passion for life experiences that most of us have had. I think those kinds of experiences have helped us navigate better because we understand,” said said Camp.

Women in the residential program are required to undergo individual and group therapy as well as meetings and recovery-oriented activities. The center is completely free for outpatients and residential patients.

Camp said the center aims for the residential program recovery process to take about a year, but that is adjusted on a case-by-case basis. She said the most important lessons women in recovery learn are the importance of communication, forgiveness and trust.

The center offers outpatient mental health services for everyone, and this program grew as the center continued to help those in the residential program after they left.

Greta Cork is chief counselor at the Calumet Center for Healing and Attachment. She specializes in addictions, substance abuse, behavioral addictions and trauma.

“You take the only way a person knows how to cope and that makes life incredibly difficult, that’s why you have to deal with the trauma and that’s what we’re doing here,” Cork said.

Cork works with patients in both outpatient and residential programs and often does eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EDMR) therapy. EDMR therapy assesses trauma and desensitizes people to the experiences they have gone through.

She said trauma memories are stored incorrectly in your brain and can be very activating; addressing these traumas is key to improving mental health.

Michele Bedingfield is the executive director of the Calumet Center and she said funding for the center has been provided by several organizations and individual donations.

“Mental illness is not something that should stop someone from moving forward. It’s like people who have high blood pressure or high cholesterol or physical injury. It can be treated and with the right care and support it can be overcome and they function as full members of society. Our goal is to help eliminate the stigma of mental illness,” Bedingfield said.

Bedingfield said the center offers child psychotherapy which is often important in treating trauma in children aged zero to five. She said the ultimate goal was always to reunite mothers with their children and teach them how to thrive in society after healing from trauma.

The Calumet Center for Healing and Attachment hosts an annual healing event called “Break Every Chain” where women share their testimonies and come together for worship and lunch. Camp said the event was meant to raise awareness and show the community that she was there to support them. Visit https://www.calumetcenter.org/ for more information.