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Rachel Puckett, Senior Consultant, is highlighting Creative Wellness, a Birmingham nonprofit marking its 20th anniversary this year. “Care should be accessible to everyone,” says Rachel. “Creative Wellness has spent two decades proving that’s not a slogan. It’s a way of operating.” Read our Q&A with Rachel to learn why Creative Wellness is the definition of “good.”
Grounded. Liberating. Meets people where they are.
Walk into Creative Wellness and the first thing you notice is that it doesn’t feel clinical. It feels organic, like a place built for people rather than for paperwork. For girls especially, it’s a genuinely safe space to be heard and to connect with others who understand what they’re carrying. That kind of environment is the product of twenty years of deliberate choices about how people deserve to be treated when they’re at their most vulnerable.
The organization’s mission is “to empower and inspire individuals and families to create positive change in their lives by providing access to counseling, creative arts and experiential programs that are nurturing and healing.”
Since 2006, Creative Wellness has worked to fill a real gap in our community: high-quality mental health care for people in crisis, offered without regard to insurance, employment, or socioeconomic status. That means individual, family, and group counseling delivered on a sliding scale, alongside creative arts and experiential programming — art, dance, drumming, equestrian-assisted therapy — that reaches people in ways traditional talk therapy sometimes can’t.
What I appreciate most is that Creative Wellness starts from the assumption that everyone deserves care, and then does the hard work of actually making that true. Removing the cost barrier is only part of it. The rest is building a space where people want to walk through the door in the first place.
I was invited onto the board by Rhiannon Reese, the organization’s executive director, whom I worked with through my role at the District Attorney’s Office. That work included partnering with the Crisis Center and others to create what is now One Place Family Justice Center, an effort built on the belief that people in crisis do better when services are coordinated around them instead of scattered across agencies. From my master’s studies and professional experience, I’ve come to understand that addiction is widely misunderstood, and that the science we have now gives us real clarity: integrating evidence-based interventions into the legal system gives people an actual opportunity to get better. That conviction is what made saying yes easy.
STRONGGirls, one of the organization’s key programs is a living example of that principle. It’s a genuine collaboration among the legal system, therapists, advocates, and, most importantly, the girls themselves, who deserve a path forward. Serving on the board has only deepened my respect for how the whole organization operates.
There’s more happening at Creative Wellness than one blog post can hold, but one program is central to its current work and is slated for potential expansion into the community.
It feels important to include that the organization is continually examining how its services need to evolve as community needs change, and there are big plans taking shape for what comes next. I’d encourage anyone who’s curious to reach out and learn more about where the organization is headed, and about how to be part of it. To learn more about Creative Wellness, explore their programs, volunteer, or support their work, visit www.creativewellnesscounseling.org.
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