Finding Fulfilling Lives

Having served as a licensed clinical social worker for ten years, RACHEL HENDRICKS knew exactly how she wanted to work with her clients. However, a practice that allowed her to do that didn’t exist, so Hendricks decided to open her own.

“I wanted to offer a kind of care that is more client-centered and growth-focused,” Hendricks says. “I also wanted to have a different environment for therapists, one where they feel stable and supported and can grow in their own identity.”

With those goals in mind, in 2018 Hendricks created Honeybee Psychotherapy and Behavioral Health. Hendricks and the therapists who work with her rely on evidence-based therapies for their patients and keep up with the latest developments in the field.

They also know that for some patients, change requires time. At Honeybee, patients have that time. Because Hendricks pays the therapists salaries, they don’t have to meet quotas. That means the therapists can give their patients 100 percent of their attention and energy.

“Our clients get better outcomes because their relationship with their therapist is based on quality,” says Hendricks. “Our therapists can collaborate with their patients to decide the best treatment for them.”

The practice, in general, focuses on clients who have impulse control disorders, relationship challenges, and mood and anxiety disorders. However, each of the therapists also specializes in specific disorders or work often with patients facing similar issues.

For example, Hendricks has extensive experience working with individuals who have eating disorders and/or struggle with body image (a problem that is particularly prevalent in a beach town like Wilmington, she says). Her co-therapists specialize in areas as varied as women with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, women going through major life adjustments like divorce, couples therapy, and military counseling.

Honeybee also offers group therapy, which Hendricks says is particularly effective for clients whose issues lead to feelings of shame, isolation, or loneliness.

“Group therapy creates a space where people can connect, get information, and collaborate with safety and support and without judgment,” she says.

Currently, Honeybee offers therapy for three very different groups. One is for expectant mothers, many of whom have lost a sense of community and resources due to COVID, another is for individuals who hoard, and a third is for people who want to make a change in their lives.

“If you have and goal you want to accomplish, the ‘Motivation to Change’ group is for you,” Hendricks says.

Though Honeybee’s therapists use a variety of treatment approaches with their patients, who range in age from older children to the elderly, they work towards the same outcome: their patients gain the ability to determine the life they want and make choices that enable them to realize that life.

It is this that Hendricks finds so rewarding.

“I love seeing patients living unencumbered by anxiety or depression or fear, or they have fears and act in spite of them,” she says. “They leave counseling, and I have the joy of knowing they are living the life they always wanted to have.”

To view more of photographer Aris Harding’s work, go to arisharding.com.

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