Opportunity to Heal

The issue of mental health lurks behind many a news headline these days. Added to the clear need for more mental health services is the fact that many people lack access. 

Enter BUFFY ANDREWS, who in 2019 founded Whole Life Foundation, a small network of mental health providers who agreed to discount their services offered through the fledgling nonprofit. 

“We believe everybody deserves the opportunity to heal, not just the wealthy or those served by Medicare or Medicaid,” she says. 

Andrews, a licensed clinical social worker and board-certified natural wellness practitioner in Wilmington, says she felt called to launch the organization after a few years’ work in her field. She began her career at a community-based mental health center, then moved into a private practice. Finally, she launched her own: Made Well Center for Wholeness. During the pandemic, her new practice grew “exponentially,” she says. 

“I was always drawn to holistic health and integration,” she says. “I started my own practice because I felt that (approach) was not happening in our area. I felt like something was missing: being able to offer hope and healing. At the end of the day, people want to connect, to be seen.” 

Andrews also saw the unmet need for holistic mental health care among the local uninsured population, which cuts across all social strata. Some local practitioners were serving a few patients on a pro bono basis, but that can lead to burnout, she says. 

This year, the Whole Life Foundation rebranded, becoming Wellness Without Walls (WWW), a name Andrews believes better describes the organization’s services. It aims to provide a supportive environment for healing and growth, with affordable services for its clients and fair compensation for its partner providers. The next goal is to fund a mobile clinic that will take services into individual neighborhoods.  

“Ours is not a program I’ve seen anywhere else,” Andrews says. “We help clients (who have) trauma, anxiety, and new experiences who need help managing new feelings. We help them implement (what they learn) back into everyday life.” 

Andrews knows the Wilmington community well. A native of Eastern North Carolina, she earned her undergraduate degree from East Carolina University and moved to Wilmington in 2012. As she searched for jobs, she found that all the positions she wanted required a graduate degree. So, she enrolled in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Master of Social Work program. 

“I interned at Coastal Horizons and fell in love with its counseling practice,” she says. “I shadowed a lot of really great clinicians. The experience opened my eyes to what (counseling) could look like, one-on-one.” 

As a newly minted clinical social worker, Andrews also saw approaches to counseling and therapy that were less effective. It inspired her to create a model that would work.    

WWW’s holistic approach shapes the services it offers: coaching, nutritional therapy, traditional mental health therapy, and functional medicine, which explores root causes rather than just treating symptoms. WWW also has introduced what it calls Breakthrough Healing Immersions, which are intensive, one-on-one experiences tailored for the individual. 

“It’s several months of therapy condensed into several days, working with one provider,” Andrews explains. “At the end of the healing immersion, (the patient) gets a healing guidebook: the labs we recommend, referrals, and tips for an immense amount of resources. There will be recommendations for physical health, hydration, stretches, and continued care. If we processed trauma, there will be some nervous system recommendations.” 

Currently, Wellness Without Walls’ network consists of more than eleven local group practices, each with at least five clinicians, giving the organization access to more than fifty practitioners. Each provider agrees to give WWW a discount on services; clients pay for those services on a sliding scale. A few pay nothing at all. 

“Over the years, we have given away over 700 sessions, which equates to at least 100 people,” Andrews says. “We just created the immersion program within the past year, and within that time, we’ve given away over fifteen immersions.” 

She’s quick to say that Wellness Without Walls is not a crisis response organization. However, its clinicians have worked with some homeless individuals, helping them to develop what she calls a “foundational understanding” of their situation and first steps toward managing and improving it.  

Unlike agencies like Coastal Horizons that fund their services through insurance reimbursements and grants, Wellness Without Walls relies on patient payment and donor support. While that approach is more challenging financially, it frees the organization from insurance-imposed limits and allows it to follow its own path. 

WWW’s annual fall fundraiser, Oysters for Outreach, takes place 2-5 p.m. October 11 at The Bend in Wilmington. It features local oysters and other food, as well as raffles and an art installation. Details are at wellnesswithoutwalls.co.

To view more of photographer Madeline Gray’s work, go to madelinegrayphoto.com.

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