Connection Is More Than a Want, It’s a Need

Through Connection There is Healing

As humans, we are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired for connection. Every person wants to love, be loved, and belong. The biggest problem in most people’s lives is trauma, and it is trauma that interferes with one’s ability to connect with others. Most people have a misunderstanding of trauma and believe it to be some extremely cruel act, typically physical violence or injury. While yes, physical violence and injury is most certainly trauma; it doesn’t begin and end there.

Trauma has been defined as the response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, diminishes their sense of self and their ability to feel the full range of emotions and experiences. When we don’t believe we have the abilities or resources to cope with a problem, stimuli, or trigger, we create adaptive behaviors to avoid or deny it. This occurs even if the behavior isn’t one that serves or supports the client, hence substance use disorders and other addictive behaviors.

It is not the trauma itself that causes lifelong damage, but rather, how trauma interrupts one’s functioning by the destruction caused to the psyche and because of this, people end up disconnecting from self and others. This leads to great difficulties when it comes to reintegrating into a healthy life where people, places, and things are seen as well and functional. This has probably been heard this before, “The opposite of addiction, is not sobriety; it’s a connection.” This is something wholeheartedly believed to be true at Agape Treatment Center, and they have a team of individuals who can empathize, validate, and understand experiences and feelings.

Connection is Key

There is a lack of resources available to teach people how to foster authentic connection in their lives. At Agape Treatment Center, they help individuals identify the core issue(s) that have kept them stuck in the same behaviors, cycles, and patterns and guide them as they return to a place of connection. Their center teaches people how to form a relationship by helping them internalize connection isn’t something earned from being “good enough,” but rather, it is something formed when one is willing enough. At Agape, their intentions are always to make sure every person that comes through the doors feels love and connection through admission, treatment, and discharge.

They recognize every person’s journey of healing is different, and what works for some may not work for someone else. Each team member brings their unique abilities, gifts, and talents and shares them with the individuals we have an opportunity to serve as a tool for their client’s healing. Because of their diverse experiences, they are able to best fit the client to the therapist. The care provided is individualized and delivered with honor, integrity, and privilege that they take very seriously. Agape is a small treatment center, which allows each client the opportunity to get to know the team and what each member brings to the center.

The team is willing to be vulnerable and share personal experiences of how they once overcame trauma, mental health, and/or addiction, and this invites clients to be vulnerable again and to open up, understanding to feel to heal. It is with ease they create a connection with the individuals they serve and support them as they return to a place of wholeness. Their alumni have shared they can’t put into words what they experience through the program, but they can feel it, and that’s what connection is all about – feeling and knowing they are loved and belong.

Experience Authentic Connection

Authenticity is a requirement for connection. They know this to be true from their own experiences, and this is something they share with their clients as they begin to repair and restore relationships and connections. From the beginning, the focus is on strengthening the relationship with self. This is accomplished by a wide range of evidence-based modalities and use individual abilities, gifts, and talents to empower people to be vulnerable again, to show up for themselves, others, and the world, to ask for help, to become a part of the community.

Their team is relatable and believes the most powerful intervention is the ability to build a therapeutic alliance right from the start which allows for a sense of safety and trust as individuals begin to heal their emotional wounds. They offer love and support along the way, and this helps clients remember we can trust ourselves; we can trust other people; we can trust life. This is something that they take with them, and it sets them up for success. Martin Luther King Jr. said it beautifully, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Let Agape Treatment Center be a place of healing.