WILMINGTON, N.C. — It’s been nearly two months since a new residential recovery center opened its doors to New Hanover County. In that short amount of time, The Healing Place already has made a difference.
Miasha Gibbs, a client at The Healing Place, says her addiction story started during the pandemic.
“My bottom looked like me not recognizing myself anymore, my motivation was low, and I didn’t really have anything to do other than work,” Gibbs said. “And I wanted to participate more in the community, so just trying to grow as a person.”
That’s how Gibbs, and so many others dealing with substance abuse, felt before finding The Healing Place.
Executive director Brian Mingia says it’s the first of its kind here in New Hanover County — and with stories like Gibbs’ becoming more and more common, he knows the need for programs like this has only grown.
“This community needs this level of care, with detox, long-term recovery, as well as some of the shelter components that we have here,” Mingia said. “The ultimate goal is to take folks that don’t have any other resources and give them an opportunity to succeed in society.”
The uniqueness comes from the nonmedical detoxification that’s offered, something Mingia says the state’s southeastern region has needed for some time.
“Prior to this, the closest detox was actually in Jacksonville, North Carolina,” Mingia said. “So we’re adding access to the entire region, specifically New Hanover County.”
While New Hanover County is home to other addiction treatment centers, not all of them offer long-term care—which plays into why this place is so special.
Joanne Lee, the clinical director for The Healing Place, has worked in the recovery field for 37 years and says she has never worked somewhere quite like The Healing Place.
“What we’re able to do that most programs aren’t is give people time — we take away all your needs, so we’re feeding you, we’re clothing you, we’re taking away everything that worries you in life, and we’re giving you the time to recover,” Lee said. “So that’s the gift we’re giving you, the gift of time.”
The Healing Place is a peer-led program, and many of the employees are former addicts themselves.
Senior program manager Matthew Wise is an alumnus of Kentucky’s Healing Place, and after getting clean, he knew he wanted to show his peers that recovery is possible.
“When somebody has the same story, somebody expresses that they went through the exact same trauma, the exact same situation and got through it, you’re able to actually get that person involved and grow,” Wise said. “You get an attachment to that person, and they flourish and because of the understanding it shows them a way out.”
It’s that social model that allows clients like Gibbs or Neil Aho to feel the program is helping them succeed.
“Maybe when somebody else comes along and says look at all this stuff that’s happened in my life, my sister died, my mother died, my brother died, I can say I understand, mine did too,” Aho said. “And then I take that experience and it turns around and instead of carrying around this bag of rocks, this burden, it becomes this asset that I can use to help somebody else that’s going through something similar.”
And although recovery is a hard and seemingly never-ending journey, The Healing Place is making it a possibility for so many who may have never thought it possible.
“Recovery I understand is a long-term thing,” Gibbs said. “But I think proving it to myself will definitely help my confidence, my motivation, new social groups, and then the ability to give back and say yes to something positive.”
Within the first month of opening, The Healing Place of New Hanover County has served over 130 people dealing with substance abuse. That number is expected to grow as its nonmedical, social setting detox opens in April.
If you would like to learn more about The Healing Place and its recovery program, click here.