Community Mental Health Programs
Mental Health Services That Are Designed for You and Grow with You
At HIR Wellness Institute, our mental health services are designed to adapt to your unique journey. Whether you begin with traditional one-hour sessions, drop-in support, or expand into a trauma-informed outpatient program with up to 8+ hours per week over 12+ weeks, our approach meets you where you are and grows with you.
Start your journey today—healing is stronger together.
All therapy groups are guided by our proprietary Community Activated Medicine™ (CAM) framework. Developed by our CEO and Founder, each program is intentionally designed to address the unique healing needs of survivors, combining innovative, trauma-informed practices with culturally grounded approaches. Our community mental health programs provide opportunities for collective healing, fostering safety, trust, and visibility in care. By moving beyond stigma, we create spaces that empower connection, resilience, and relational health, recognizing that mental wellness is both a personal and shared responsibility.
Youth Therapy Groups
Daughters of Tradition
Healing Through Sisterhood
Our Community Activated Medicine Framework™-Informed Daughters of Tradition (DOT) Indigenous Intertribal and Intergenerational Youth Group, founded in 2017, evolved from the seminal work of Elder Coyhis, Founder of White Bison. Through community, our girls focus on bridging the gap to wellness through matriarchal leadership, sisterhood, and community building. As a violence prevention and intervention group, our relatives build resilience, leadership, and advocacy skills while also strengthening their confidence, cultural identity, and developing effective coping practices. Through this intertribal and intergenerational space, our youth rise as agents of change and the leaders of tomorrow.
.jpg)
_jfif.jpg)
Sons of Tradition
Healing Through Brotherhood
A White Bison group, Sons of Tradition (SOT) program offers Indigenous boys and young men a space to reconnect with their culture, strengthen their sense of purpose, healthy coping skills, and grow into leaders rooted in compassion and responsibility. As a violence and substance use prevention group, SOT centers mentorship, story-sharing, and emotional development, helping participants navigate the challenges they face. SOT encourages boys to lead with heart, build healthy relationships, and learn how to be part of community building and healing.
S.P.A.C.E. for Kids
Healing Through Play
Sensory Play Attunement Connection and Engagement (S.P.A.C.E.) for Kids™ offers an innovative, healing-centered approach designed to help children build a deeper understanding of themselves and their interactions with the world. Led by our skilled Occupational Therapists, we create a nurturing environment that emphasizes sensory engagement, play, and meaningful connection, promoting emotional growth and overall well-being. In this safe and supportive space, children are encouraged to explore their emotions, strengthen relationships, and develop a heightened awareness of their minds and bodies. Through engaging activities focused on movement, sensory exploration, and self-regulation, we empower children to enhance their emotional resilience, improve their social connections, and thrive in all areas of life.
Gatherers of Tradition
Healing Through Our Community
Gatherers of Tradition (GOT) is our annual Indigenous Youth Summer Mental Health Day Camp designed to empower and uplift our youth. Here, participants dive into their healing, fostering connections that strengthen their self-identity, self-esteem, and healthy coping. The program not only emphasizes the importance of traditional knowledge and practices but also equips our young leaders with essential coping skills and tools for self-advocacy. GOT brings in community and cultural teachers to enrich the experience of our young relatives. Our camp creates a nurturing community where youth can thrive, share their stories, and build lasting friendships.
Story Menders
Healing Through Role Play & Art Therapy
Story Menders is a transformative and restorative practice, healing-informed group for Indigenous and underserved survivors of violence. This group is facilitated for all ages and stages of trauma recovery. This group harnesses the power of storytelling and healing through utilizing the Indigenous Role-Playing Game (RPG), Coyote & Crow and bridging this game to meet the needs of our therapy groups. The program creates a healing-informed and accessible space where participants build confidence, identify their gifts, strengthen communication and decision-making skills, and cultivate community. Participants engage in story building, and character development, and, alongside our clinical therapist as participants bring their unique characters to life. Guided by our Story Guide Facilitator and counselors, they journey through rich narratives and collaborative art, play and drama therapy approaches. The group culminates with youth sharing their characters’ worlds and backstories, celebrating creativity, growth, improving relational healing and community connection. This group is ideal for those who are seeking to increase their creativity, voice, advocacy, and sense of community belonging.
Stuffie Workshop: Building Coping Skills Through Healing
Intensive Outpatient Program
HIR Wellness Institute’s Stuffie Workshop is an 8–12 week intensive outpatient program designed to help individuals manage the lasting effects of trauma. Participants learn transferable coping and healing-informed skills to better navigate uncertainty, grief, anxiety, anger, low self-esteem, loneliness, and other challenges that arise from traumatic experiences. This group integrates Art Therapy, Play Therapy, Drama Therapy, and Occupational Therapy to support an innovative approach to healing the various parts of ourselves that get disrupted from chronic stress, trauma, and violence. This program is particularly supportive for individuals with lived experiences of foster care, adoption, separation, homelessness, or household mental health or substance use challenges, domestic or intimate partner violence, or other violent events. It is also suitable for adults who have experienced trauma leading to PTSD, Complex PTSD, Borderline Personality Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Anxiety Disorders, or other trauma-related conditions. The workshop focuses on addressing complex trauma and the activation of trauma memories in day-to-day life, empowering participants to regain control, resilience, and emotional well-being.
_jfif.jpg)
Young Adult Life Skills
Intensive Outpatient Program
The Young Adult Life Skills program supports individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities, neurodivergence, complex trauma's, or differing abilities who are survivors of violence in their journey toward greater independence year-round. This group is ideal for young adults who are living in group homes, have aged out of foster care, are struggling with the transition into young adulthood. We provide a safe, supportive, and structured environment that encourages participants to share their successes and collaboratively problem-solve everyday challenges. Focusing on essential skills for independent living, the program covers areas such as cooking, budgeting, relationship-building, and decision-making. Participants are empowered to navigate the world with confidence while gaining a deeper understanding of their minds and bodies. Relatives learn valuable skills and modifications that help them thrive independently and within their communities, fostering personal growth and connection.
Elders Therapy Programs
Elders Book Club
Healing Through Our Ancestors Stories
Elder’s Healing Book Club is a circle where culture and story are centered. Together, we engage in bibliotherapy; reading and reflecting on carefully chosen books that center Indigenous culture and healing. Each session invites collective reflection, emotional wellness, and cultural grounding. Supported by HIR Wellness Institute’s licensed mental health providers, relatives have conversations around grief, joy, memory, and growth through both books and shared life experiences. This space honors the wisdom of our Elders while creating room for new insights and community care. With each chapter and conversation, we deepen our connection, to histories, and the healing power of story.
_jfif.jpg)
.jpg)
Elders Power Up
Healing Through Our Bodies
Following Elder’s Book Club, the Elder’s Power-Up group, led by our Occupational Therapy team, provides a space for Elders to engage in group movement activities tailored to their needs and abilities. Movement protects our Elders by helping prevent injury and illness, providing further opportunity for social connection, and increasing engagement in daily occupations. It is key to staying connected physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. We provide guidance on home modifications to promote safety and independence and introduce the Peacemaker Massage to enhance body awareness. We also incorporate activities such as modified stretching, low-impact exercises, and chair hula. Each session is personalized to affirm that every effort contributes to the overall health and happiness of our Elders, fostering a strong sense of community and support.
Adult Therapy Groups & Programs
Survivor Healing Group
Reclaiming our Stories & Hope
Our Survivor Healing Groups provide a supportive space for individuals affected by violence and trauma. Through guided sessions, participants learn coping strategies, safety planning, healthy boundaries, and how to recognize signs of abuse. These groups foster resilience, restorative practices, connection, healing, empowerment, and develop community building skills.
Recovery Groups
Healing for Survivors
At HIR Wellness Institute, we recognize that trauma, mental health, and substance use are deeply interconnected experiences that require an integrated approach. Our Substance Use Recovery Groups combine culturally specific interventions with evidence-based practices. Led by substance use counselors and an integrated clinical team, participants learn practical coping skills, relapse prevention strategies, and tools for maintaining sobriety. All sessions are delivered from a trauma-informed perspective, promoting holistic recovery, emotional well-being, and healthy living.
Culturally Specific Intensive Outpatient Programs (C-IOP)
Therapy Services that Grow with You
HIR Wellness Institute offers Intensive Outpatient Programming designed for individuals who need structured, supportive care without overnight stays. Our programs integrate culturally grounded practices with evidence-based therapy, providing a safe and healing-focused environment to process trauma, build coping skills, and strengthen overall well-being—while allowing participants to maintain home, work, or school responsibilities.
_jfif.jpg)
Virtual Therapy-Informed Programs
These virtual groups run Monday-Thursday
Reflections & Resilience (R&R)
Healing Through Our Cultural Teachings
Facebook LIVES focuses on creating a safe online community for survivors of violence to learn new ways to cope, heal, advocate, and network together. All our facilitators are trained in trauma-informed care and culturally respectful practices to offer a diverse and Indigenous-based or -inspired healing to our community members on a routine basis. These practices are there to increase relational health, decrease anxiety and depression, and offer therapeutic support. The medicine shared in our daily LIVES includes cultural storytelling, breathing exercises, smudging, affirmations, relaxation techniques, and more. All live HIR Wellness programs have mental health professionals available for support.
_jfif.jpg)
Radical Joy
Healing Through Our Hurt
Radical Joy is our transformative Facebook LIVE program that streams every Friday, dedicated to cultivating the practice of choosing joy within our lives. In times when joy feels elusive, this program provides a healing-informed space for relatives to explore ways to invite joy—even in brief moments. As part of our Community Activated Medicine™ Framework, we come together to engage in joyous activities that nourish the spirit and empower the heart. Led by our community healers and mental health professionals, participants will explore music, movement, and meaningful connections to discover pathways to radical joy. Embracing joy is not only a personal act of self-care but also a powerful coping skill.
Children's Fire Book Club
Healing Through Our Stories
The Children's Fire Book Club is an engaging Facebook LIVE program where our integrated and interdisciplinary team of interns—comprising social work, counseling, occupational therapy, art therapy, psychology, and human services—come together to read to children. Each session features carefully selected child and family-friendly books designed to facilitate discussions around healthy coping skills and emotional well-being, and safety all while connecting children to important concepts about their mental health. The Children’s Fire Book Club can also be found in person in community spaces at many of our Mobile Mental Health Clinics!
Online & Onsite Grief
& Vigil Circles
Healing Through Our Heaviness
Grief Circles is a compassionate program designed to support individuals experiencing grief and loss, recognizing that mourning is a communal journey rather than a solitary one. In these circles, we acknowledge that grief can manifest in many forms—whether from the loss of a loved one or the absence of something deeply meaningful in our lives or communities. Our gatherings offer a safe and nurturing space where participants can connect, share, and hold space for one another as they navigate the complexities of heartache, confusion, shock, and disbelief. Together, we create an environment for prayer, reflection, and heartfelt connection, emphasizing the importance of continued support in coping with loss. Grief is a journey that requires time and understanding, and our Grief Circles provide a consistent source of solace and companionship, allowing individuals to honor their feelings and find comfort within a supportive community.
Drop-In Thearpy-Informed Groups
Heart Art Studio Drop-In
Healing Through Art
At our Drop-in Heart Art Studio, we invite you to explore a variety of heart-centered art activities designed to nourish your mind, body, heart, and spirit. Rooted in Community Activated Medicine™-Informed themes, each week’s offerings aim to deepen your healing journey, helping you connect with yourself and express your emotions through the transformative power of art. Relatives can choose your level of support through our “Choose Your Support” options, allowing you to tailor your experience. Simply follow the Healing Art Activity Instructions provided at the art tables or throughout the studio, and explore a variety of materials to create your own unique healing art piece. This space is dedicated to fostering connection, reflection, and personal growth—understanding the profound impact that creative expression can have on your overall well-being.
_jfif.jpg)
Heartmath® Lab Drop-In
Healing Through Our Hurt
HeartMath® is a research-based system that focuses on heart rate variability (HRV), the naturally occurring changes in the time between heartbeats, as a key indicator of stress and emotional regulation. Through breathing techniques, mindfulness practices, and biofeedback technology, HeartMath® helps relatives shift into a state of “coherence,” where the heart, brain, and nervous system are working in sync. This coherent state supports clearer thinking, emotional balance, and improved resilience to stress.
Somatic Healing Sessions
Healing Through Our Bodies
Body-Centered Healing Drop-In Sessions invite relatives to reconnect with their bodies as an essential part of mental health and wellness. Too often, the body is overlooked in conversations about healing, even though it carries memory, stress, and trauma alongside the mind and spirit. These sessions offer accessible practices, including sound healing, Reiki, guided meditation, and other somatic approaches, that honor the body's wisdom. Through vibration, breath, energy work, and mindful movement, participants are supported in releasing stored tension, easing the nervous system, and cultivating a deeper sense of calm and balance. For many, these embodied practices open pathways of healing that conventional talk therapy alone may not reach. In this space, relatives are invited to reconnect with themselves, nurture resilience, and experience holistic care that strengthens overall well-being.
.png)