Nonprofit Efforts for Teen Mental Health | Chea Weltchek of Teens with Trauma

A big part of our mission is turning pain into purpose. Like, how do you take what happened to you? And not everybody will resonate with that, but how do you take what happened to you and make it something that you can use in some kind of way, which is a big reason for the longitudinal trauma. I'm a survivor. And so when people are like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry that that happened to you, I'm like, yeah, this is really like a terrible thing that happened to me. And also, all these kids are in free therapy right now because of what happened to me.

Welcome to the Mental Health Entrepreneur Podcast. We are here to inspire creative ideas and connections for entrepreneurs and advocates working to address our mental health crisis. As you listen, I hope you will experience new ideas and motivation to innovate in your business, your community, and in your life. Welcome.

Welcome everyone to the Mental Health Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Harrison, and with me today is Shea Wellczyk. Shea has a group practice as well as a non profit called Teens with Trauma that seeks to provide funding for teens to get trauma treatment. Shay is passionate about equity in mental health care as well. Welcome, Shea.

Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah, I'm excited to have you. So I want to just put out

a little forewarning, everyone. We're going to be diving into the topic of Trauma with Teens because that is what this nonprofit is about. If you are someone that does not want to hear anything about sexual assault or sexual abuse, that is some of the areas that this organization helps with. So we're not going to go into any details, we're not sharing any stories of anyone. But that is a topic that's going to come up today. So we just want to give you that warning that if you would like to opt out of listening further, this would be a good time to do that. Otherwise, let's go ahead and dig in a little bit. I would love to hear some of your story of how you got to the place of starting this nonprofit call called Teens with Trauma.

As you mentioned, I am a therapist and I own a group practice here in Baltimore. In the beginning, I was really passionate about access to care. And like, how do we. I mean, I still am, obviously. Like, how do we create access to care? And as I was building the private practice, I was thinking, oh, it'd be so awesome to start a nonprofit. And my husband was laughing, like, with what money? So I consulted with a ton of people and they were like, you have to Build your business first. So I've done that over the past eight years now, built this business. And last year I was like, okay, business is up. Business is thriving. How do we really dig into access to care and what should that look like? And around the same time, I had a client who I focus on teenagers and specifically trauma. And I had a teenager who I. Their story really resonated with my own as a survivor of sexual abuse. And so she came in as a referral from CPS and could not afford care, so I started seeing her for free. In the process of that, I was like, wow, I'm not working enough. Let me. Let me launch a whole other business and see if we can start providing free therapy for teens who don't have access to this level of care. That happens in private practice for private pay individuals.

Okay. So that was the launch of it. So what did that journey look like? Because I think that's a whole. That's a whole learning curve. It's an entirely different process than starting a business. Right.

I say all the time, like, I just had no, like, zero, like, negative understanding of what a nonprofit was and how the nonprofit and private sectors align and don't align and like, the differences between the two. I was just sort of thinking, oh, I've done this already. I know how to run a group practice. We can do this. There's no. There's not like, any crazy big difference. Not at all true. Right. Nonprofit is really, like, so much is fundraising, which is not something that I had any education in at all. So that has been a really big learning curve. I'm definitely the type of person that really likes a challenge even when it's going to kill me. And so that's what I've been trying to do over the past year and a half, is teach myself how to fundraise and get really uncomfortable with asking for money. And it's not money for me. Right? Like, I'm not getting paid. I'm volunteering at this nonprofit full time. But it's money for kids who just cannot afford, like, access to really awesome mental health care.

Right. So a lot of volunteer time. I'm hearing it's a labor of love.

A labor of love, indeed. It really is. So much volunteer time and a lot of education, and it's been really incredible. I've met some amazing, amazing, amazing people, Rachel. Just people that just, like, have devote their lives to this sector, like volunteering and bringing out, like, the best in their communities. And it's so, in so many ways, it's like really awesome and uplifting. And it's also just such a grind. It's a labor of love, for sure.

So I want to kind of understand

a little bit about the type of teens that you're able to serve. Because if I think about teens today day, there are probably teens that have access to some kind of counseling at school, for example. Some have insurance and might be able to get care that way. Some may have the. The benefit of being able to do a private pay practice. Where are you, what kinds of groups of teens are you able to serve right now? What are you seeing, like the greatest need? I guess I'm curious about that.

So the type of therapy that we do, sort of intensive trauma therapy, is not something that's typically provided in schools. School counselors are amazing and so helpful and very frequently have really large caseloads. And, you know, it's not possible to meet with a student weekly or something like that. We really focus on under resourced. And for us that means kids that can't afford therapy, can't afford out of network or can't afford their co pays or don't have health insurance at all, like no access to health insurance that unfortunately is like a way bigger population than you would imagine. And then when there's the ability and when there's openings, there are definitely teenagers. And I know, I know you've experienced this too, Rachel, in private practice, where their insurance, whatever that insurance is, doesn't cover any trauma therapy, like any extensive trauma therapy like this. Either it won't cover the amount of sessions that they need, or it doesn't cover it at all, or their copay is just so high that it's impossible for them to make it work. Yeah.

And some people that have deductibles that are so big that they're going to be in therapy for months before they see their insurance kick in.

Yeah. And that limits teens themselves from even coming into therapy. The other great thing is in Maryland, we are able to see kids consenting on their own at age 12 and up. So there are some kids who are in situations where usually in these situations CPS is involved, but are in situations where they don't want their parents to know that they're in therapy at all for whatever the reason is, you don't trust them, or there's some emotional stuff going on. I don't know what things that might be going on at home that those are also kids that we can see in that situation.

Yeah, that makes sense. And how do these teens find you? I'm Very curious about that piece.

Well, we're spreading the word, but that part is slow and steady. A lot of the kids that we get, about 80% come through child protective Services. Some come through their school counselors. So they'll, they'll make that first contact with school and then they'll say, oh, we can send you over to Teens with Trauma. They can, they can see you otherwise. Other nonprofits that do similar work refer kids over to us frequently. So.

Okay.

And some private practices, right. That know about our services, they get a contact and it's a family that fits the criteria here and can't afford treatment, and they'll refer them too. So we're growing that part for slowly, but that's where we're getting everybody.

How do you find therapists? Are these specifically therapists in your practice or how does that work?

No, they are totally separate. So everything is totally separate. The therapist that we have now, I think that our first therapist we hired just through a Facebook ad. Basically. We interviewed her, did multiple rounds of interviews and she was awesome. So we hired her. And our newest therapist, we like, knew one of the clinicians, word of mouth. So for now we have two currently that are doing paid work for us at Teens with Trauma.

Okay.

Part of our program is training, really awesome training for therapists. And so both of those therapists are trained in EMDR and getting continuing consultations. So EMDR is a therapy modality that is really focused on trauma. It's like the gold standard for PTSD and veterans. And anyways, we do training in that and supervision in that and extensive training and other evidence based modalities. So it's a starting point.

Awesome. So where do you see this going? Like, what is your kind of big dream about? Like, teens with trauma would be able to do what?

Oh my gosh, in like a perfect world, we'd be able. None of these kids would ever have access issues. You know, they would have awesome therapists that stay in the role. And that's like a real pipe dream. But I think at the end of the day, it's just that therapy, especially therapy around abuse and really intense traumatic, complex traumas and other traumatic experiences can be really time consuming. And for teenagers to come once a week after school instead of, like the. Instead of is always the thing that we're grappling with. What are you doing instead? You know, what you're doing therapy instead of what? Like the would rather be a teenager and go to dance class or go to soccer or, you know, even, I don't know, like whatever the things are that they might be interested in doing, hang out with their friends. So we're in the beginning stages of like, really trying to figure out how can we make this more effective and efficient, like therapy in general for teenagers. And I think in the end, hopefully what we'll be able to pull off is sort of a retreat style model for teenagers. No one really wants to do that. Like, everyone's like, oh gosh, we don't want kids on retreats, but summer camps do it, so why can't we do it? You know?

Hey, mental health entrepreneur listeners, you may remember that when I am not hosting this podcast, I own a seven office therapy practice and training institute. I'm excited to invite you to join us at the Trauma Specialist Training institute for our six day EMDR basic training in January and March of 2025. In this online training, you'll learn everything you need to confidently start using EMDR with your clients. We'll cover the origin of emdr, the research that started it all. You'll learn to apply all eight phases of EMDR therapy, adapt it for special populations, and use it with various diagnoses and symptoms. Our relationally focused, interactive and experiential approach ensures that you will experience, experience EMDR as a client, a therapist and an observer, which is essential for effective learning and meets EMDRIA requirements. This is a wonderful opportunity for your career and to enhance your ability to help your clients. And of course, because you're our podcast listeners, I want you to get $35 off your registration with the code MHEBT. So that's MHE-D. Join us in 2025 for our trainings on January 23rd, 24th and 25th, and then again on March 27th, 28th and 29th. Head to TraumaSpecialistTraining.com to sign up and take the first step into your EMDR journey.

There's like so much amazing research coming out of places that do retreats for adults, specifically trauma focused retreats for adults. And I think that in the end, like, that's kind of one thing that we like, hope to figure out and to get research backing on. Like, how do we do retreats that are maybe four or five days long? Kids come in, they have PTSD symptoms, they leave, they have a significant reduction in their symptoms, and then they're bolstered, like for the year. Like, they know now how trauma affects their mental health and behavior and social interactions. And they also know, like, what to do when they're triggered or when something comes up, up or how to advocate for themselves. So not like we can fit everything in five days, but to kind of be able to cohort style, model, support these kids in that way and then using whatever that map is to truly, to just give to community mental health and other places that are doing mental health to be like, okay, this is how this model can work for teenagers.

Yeah, I like that. I think the piece too that maybe some people may not be connected with is if treatment doesn't happen, then what? I mean, I think a lot of people have experienced sexual assault, sexual abuse, unfortunately. And for some people it's, hey, that was out of sight. And I've continued to live my, my life. But I guess I, I want to kind of talk about what are some of the reasons why it's really important to address that for individuals and their families.

Oh my gosh, there's so many reasons, right? Trauma, untreated trauma impacts everything, truly, in my opinion. I mean I'm biased, right? I'm a trauma therapist. Are you? So we're biased on this.

We're both biased together.

But the idea that it impacts like every component of your life. So the arenas, right, like emotional, cognitive, physical, behavioral, social, like all of the things it impacts. So you know, if you don't treat it, it's really truly going to impact all of those things. And not only that then impacts future generations and everyone that you engage with. And so treating your own trauma, taking care of your own stuff so that you're not triggered. Triggers, it's like such a funny thing to talk about. Triggers is such a like buzzword. But the idea of triggers being like mirrors. So when you're triggered by something, okay, that's like showing you something you haven't healed and really thinking about that and using that as an opportunity to be like, okay, maybe I should do some work around this. Even if you think it's not impacting, it likely is. It's in. It's like trauma like rewires your brain to shortcut into an easier mechanism for survival. And so if you have attachment traumas when you're young, like that is going to be something that you constantly go back to whether you know it or not. You probably don't know it. It's like you're bas line. And that really like impacts how you interact with everyone you know. Your colleagues, your, your parents, your kids, really everyone, your, your partner, significant others. So it's, that's just like one example. Also like physical components, nightmares, sleep, self destructive behavior, substance abuse, like chronic pain, digestive issues. I Mean, it goes on and on and on. Hormone hormonal imbalances. Like, we could sit here all day and list what happens.

Yeah, yeah. But I think for me, that's so pivotal in what your nonprofit is trying to do. Because if we're able to take a young person who has been impacted by a sexual assault, that is not their fault, by definition, is something that happened to them, and help them work through shame symptoms, all of this stuff, in a way that they're not carrying that in their life going forward. It's not impacting their future trajectory. I get really excited about doing emdr, honestly, with anyone, but with kids and teens specifically, because to me, it really does change their entire life trajectory. What they're going to have the energy for, what they're going to think they're capable of, what they're not going to be carrying as heavyweight with them, and how that's going to impact every choice in their life going forward, a hundred percent.

And what they do with their story and how that impacts all these people around them, like, it is a big part of our mission, is turning pain into purpose. And so, like, how do you take what happened to you? And not everybody will resonate with that, but how do you take what happened to you and make it something that you can use in some kind of way, which is a big reason for the longitudinal trauma? I'm a survivor. And so when people are like, oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry that that happened to you, I'm like, yeah, this is really, like, a terrible thing that happened to me. And also, all these kids are in free therapy right now because of what happened to me. And so there's a crazy statistic out there. 47.9% of childhood sexual abuse survivors are victimized again later in life. And if you aren't treating or you're just pretending like none of this happened, I'm just avoiding all these triggers. You're very frequently caught in destructive cycles. And, like, sometimes those destructive cycles put you in situations, Right. Where you don't know how to advocate for yourself, because this has been, like, a pattern that you've carried. So that statistic, like, really, it's just. It's like, so hard to hear. But to your point, early intervention is always best with everything, right? That's true every single time. And. And when I'm sitting and talking to, like, donors about, like, finances of nonprofits, and they're like, well, this is like, it's expensive to treat someone. It is really expensive to someone. It's really Expensive to treat them over the course of their lifetime or to not treat them at all and then have them go into criminal justice system or like there's a million other ors. And also yesterday I was giving a presentation and someone asked, it was such a great question, what is healing trauma? And when you, when you were Talking too about EMDRs, I was thinking about this and I'm sure, you know, you'll have an opinion too. But I think that for me, right, it is. Someone can have a trigger and it's not going to devolve their entire day. That's like the beginning of healing trauma is recognizing that something can come up for you, but it's not going to put you into flashbacks or nightmares for, you know, you could think about this traumatic thing and you could still move forward with your. It doesn't get stuck.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good way to say it. I want to talk a little bit too about this idea from an entrepreneur's standpoint of this juggle between running a business and running a nonprofit. You've already, like, talked about your volunteer work at your nonprofit and you're having to learn how to fundraise. So what has that juggle been like for you?

Oh my gosh, it has been a wild, if I'm being honest. Like, just, you have to, I mean, I think in order to do it, you have to be a little bit crazy. Like a little bit like, how can I lean into just learning and like working as hard as possible for something other than myself? And not to say that that's what this is actually, because I think you can hear me saying, like, I get a lot from this. Like, I'm super passionate about it. I feel really good about the work that I do here. So that's motivating and driving, obviously. And also as a therapist, trying really hard to balance burnout. Like, how do you not burn out when you're running full time, running a business and running really also a nonprofit that's getting to be the same magnitude, same size. That balance has been really hard and a hard reminder that sometimes, like, you just can't do everything in a day, you know, and sometimes there's grants that are due and oh yeah, something else comes up and like, that grant that day is just like not the first thing. So eventually we'll be big enough to hire an executive director and they'll run it and it'll be awesome. And in the meantime, it's one of those founder executive director situations. But those are good in that there's a lot of passion here that keeps us going.

That is true. So if you could pick one thing that you would give as advice, maybe to someone who is thinking about starting a nonprofit, what would that be?

I think something that's been really helpful to me is this is like a term that I had never heard until I came into nonprofit world. And maybe that's just because I'm in therapy world. So it's not as. It's not like the business world in the same way, but is the listening tour. So I really have spent the past 18 months meeting as many nonprofit people that are. Are willing to sit down and make time to be like, okay, this is what I think you should do. This is. And to hear as many pieces of advice and as many opinions as possible, because I really had no idea going in. And I think, like, that has been incredibly challenging, right? Like, there's so many people that are like, oh, gosh, they're just, you know, they're not into it. It's not easy to say. And so there are naysayers. And those days are really hard. They're also the biggest learning opportunity days, because when people say, oh, this thing isn't going to get funded because of this reason that sends me home for two days being like, okay, well, how do I fix that reason? You know, like, what is the solution to this? So I think going in, knowing that it's, like, so much work and that there are so many. So many hiccups, and it's just slow. It's like a. It's like a marathon, right? Not a sprint, but taking as much advice and surrounding yourself with amazing people. And I think those are, like, the things that are really hard and helpful and awesome, like, all of those things,

that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for that advice and thank you so much for being here. I hope you'll keep us updated on things that happen with teens with trauma. And all of Shay's links to her nonprofit and her practice. And all of that will be in our show notes. So for the listeners, please feel free to catch her there. Shea, thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.