Mindful Counseling PLLC Helene Recovery Fund

Hello!

I'm Andrew, the Clinical Director and Owner of Mindful Counseling PLLC. We’re are a small group practice of mental health professionals based in Asheville. Our main office location pictured above was flooded and as of the start of December, will remain unavailable for several more months. Our second location also flooded and we’ve been able to finally return to it this week (December 1). Due to the damage from Helene, most of Asheville was without power, water, internet, and reliable cell service for weeks following the storm. Potable water was restored mid-November to everyone’s surprise bringing the city back to basic utility status after more than 6 weeks.

With the utility outages, telehealth was not available to many of our clients and staff unless parties were able to evacuate and temporarily relocate to other parts of the state. This greatly impacted our revenue and our employee earnings for the month of October and November. Without having a space to meet with clients, we were unable to offer in person services at a level adequate to meet the needs of all of our clients.

We also lost their contents of our office, including a library of therapy and mental health related books. We have a new space we moved into at the beginning of December which is nicer and out of any future flood zone. The move, however, has been expensive as our rent is higher and we have had to purchase new furnishings to equip our office.

Lastly, we have done our best to learn new skills and attend trainings focused on mental health first aid, trauma, and disaster responsiveness. These have been excellent and will be skills we can carry forward, but attending these has come with additional costs as well.

The funds sought will go toward income replacement for staff following the storm, covering the costs of extra trainings, and covering the expenses incurred from moving into a new space and starting from scratch. Additionally, our team would greatly benefit from some wellness funding to help support our own nervous systems as we help support our community.

Thank you for reading about our practice and situation and we greatly appreciate your help.

https://mindfulcounselingpllc.com/