Some believe that wellness comes from a balance between mental health, physical health, and spiritual health. Practicing self-care can be done in a verity of ways, and there are several places to explore this path here in Connecticut.
Among these links, you may find the following: Meditation – Yoga – Retreats – Outdoor Activites – Support Groups – Stress Management – Therapeutic Art – Drum Circles – Community Gatherings – Diet & Nutrition – Workshops – and a little bit more of the person you could become.
AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) – is a worldwide fellowship of men and women who help each other to stay sober. They offer the same help to anyone who has a drinking problem and wants to do something about it. Since they are all alcoholics themselves, they have a special understanding of each other. They know what the illness feels like – and they have learned how to recover from it in AA.
Locations: Statewide Access
AL-ANON is a worldwide organization that offers a program of help and mutual support for families and friends of someone with a drinking problem whether or not the person with a drinking problem seeks help or even recognizes the existence of a drinking problem. Participants in AL-ANON give and receive comfort and understanding through a mutual exchange of experience, strength and hope, and learn how the principles of the AL-ANON program can be applied to their own lives.
Locations: Statewide Access
ALATEEN (AL-ANON for younger members) is a worldwide organization that offers a program of help and mutual support for families and friends of someone with a drinking problem whether or not the person with a drinking problem seeks help or even recognizes the existence of a drinking problem. Participants in ALATEEN give and receive comfort and understanding through a mutual exchange of experience, strength and hope, and learn how the principles of the AL-ANON program can be applied to their own lives.
Alateen must have consent form and notarized medical form filled out by parent/guardian and presented at the Alateen registration desk.
Alateen Form Required for Convention Attendance.
Locations: Statewide Access
Believe In Me Empowerment Corporation (BIMEC) has a 14-year history of providing services to youth and adults in New Haven. The Mission of the organization is to improve the lives of children, young adults, and their families impacted by and or affected by incarceration. We also offer supportive housing services, self-help groups employment education and referrals.
Locations: New Haven – Hamden
Bipolar Moms Support Group – Facebook Group: If you’re a mom and you have bipolar disorder then you’re in the right place! I want you to feel like you can be honest here. Everyone else here has the same thing. If anyone can understand you it’ll be us!
Location: Online
Center for Mindfulness & Insight Meditation’s mission is to help people develop the self-awareness and inner peace necessary to live life in a skillful way. The Society does this by providing a serene, contemplative space for the practice of insight meditation, under the gentle and experienced guidance of resident Buddhist monks, and in the context of a supportive community of fellow practitioners. The Society warmly welcomes novice and experienced practitioners of all faiths.
Location: West Redding, CT
Chrysalis Center: We work with individuals and families to help them manage complicated situations. We help people identify their needs and set goals for their future. By connecting each person to community services, we help them become more independent and self-sufficient. But we don’t stop there. We’re here as long as people need us to help overcome any barriers they encounter and help smooth the path to success. Our skilled staff help people to transform their lives.
Location: Hartford, CT
GamTalk: This is a self help online community of supportive people helping others with gambling issues. Our chat rooms are safe spaces for you to engage in real time chat with other members of the GamTalk community.
Location: Statewide / Online Resource
Hartford – West End Mindfulness Center: We are a community organization dedicated to enriching the lives of people in the Greater Hartford community and beyond through mindfulness teaching and the healing arts. It is our mission to cultivate peace-of-mind and relieve suffering by training others to manage both their thoughts and emotions, as well as cultivate positive qualities such as kindness and selflessness. Rooted in Buddhist teachings, yet accessible to all, we offer a variety of classes, study groups and workshops aimed toward enhancing the well-being of your body, mind and spirit.
Location: Hartford, CT
Hearing Voices Network (CT-HVN) approach offers a non-pathologizing, open way of understanding and supporting people through the experience of hearing voices. It assumes that hearing voices (as well as seeing visions and other sensory experiences) can be a normal part of human experience with a variety of meanings for people. Hearing Voices support groups are widely available throughout the United Kingdom and many other countries and are just taking hold in the United States.
Locations: Deep River – Hartford – Manchester – Middletown – New Haven – Waterbury – New Britain – Norwalk – Torrington
Inner Compass Initiative, The Withdrawal Project: Methods to safely taper off of psychiatric medication.
We believe that within each and every person lies an innate wisdom — an “inner compass”. This wisdom, when listened to, helps us to navigate the difficulties of being human. But the mental health industry, with its medicalized model of “mental illness” and “mental health”, its pharmaceuticalized and institutionalized standards of care, its massive promotional and public relations apparatus, its legalized authority, and its professionalization of help, has influenced many of us to ignore and lose touch with this inner wisdom.
Location: Statewide
Kaia Yoga can be a place for anyone to take a break and be still. It’s meant to be an oasis where you can turn off and find quiet either by yourself during our Open Sit times, in a Guided Meditation or through relaxation tools such as Breathwork (Pranayama) and Yoga Nidra. Every Kaia Yoga location will hold opportunities for you to grow your meditation practice, increase your tool box of techniques for mindfulness and relaxation while ultimately finding more way to guide you on this amazing journey of life.
Locations: Darien, Greenwich, Old Greenwich & Westport, CT
Leaving Abuse Behind Forever – Transforming Trauma: This Facebook Group is for women who have experienced sexual/emotional/mental abuse in their lives. This is a group created with the intention of holding a space for women to share their healing process, share their wisdom and their intention to move past the trauma and pain their abuse has caused and continues to cause in their lives.
Location: Online
Odiyana Kadampa Buddhist Center is a Buddhist meditation center dedicated to world peace by offering everyone the opportunity to develop mental peace through meditation and related practices. Classes are open to everyone, from beginners to advanced practitioners. These teachings offer clear, practical methods to improve our human nature and qualities through developing the capacity of our mind. The center welcomes people from all faiths and those who do not subscribe to any faith. You do not have to be Buddhist to take part in the classes or to benefit from them.
Location: East Hartford, CT
Narcotics Anonymous – Connectucit Region: N.A. is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. We are recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean. This is a program of complete abstinence from all drugs. There is only one requirement for membership, the desire to stop using. We suggest that you keep an open mind and give yourself a break. Our program is a set of principles written so simply that we can follow them in our daily lives. The most important thing about them is that they work. We have learned from our group experience that those who keep coming to our meetings regularly stay clean.
Location: Statewide – Search for a local meeting HERE
Postpartum Support International- Connecticut Chapter (PSI-CT): is a chapter of Postpartum Support International. PSI-CT works to increase support and provide resources for women and their families during pregnancy and the postpartum period (also known as the perinatal period), to increase awareness of the mental health challenges related to childbearing and parenting, and to provide perinatal mental training for childbirth professionals.
Location: Statewide / See a current listing of support groups here.
Visit their online support group: https://www.facebook.com/psictchapter/
SMART Recovery Online Community is a modern, science-based alternative to traditional 12-step recovery programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. You’ll find it friendly, action-oriented, and supportive, wherever you are in your recovery. We can help you gain confidence in your ability to quit, maintain motivation to stay quit, learn strategies for dealing with urges, deal with self-defeating thoughts and actions, and get on with getting more out of life. See Website for more information.
Location: Statewide Access
Smokefree.gov – SmokefreeWomen: A Web site that helps women quit smoking. Women face unique challenges when quitting smoking. This site addresses these challenges by providing information and tools that specifically address women’s experiences as they become smokefree.
Location: Statewide Access
Toivo by Advocacy Unlimited is an initiative that includes statewide classes, workshops and a mind/body focused wellness center where people can engage in expert facilitated yoga, meditation, fitness and strength training, creative writing, expressive art, walk/run groups, nutrition workshops, drum circles and much more!
Location: Hartford, CT
Women’s Advice group and Mental Health Support – Facebook Group: We offer a judgement free safe space for women worldwide, who need support or advice or just a safe space to talk, we are here to show you are not alone, and there is support and someone always there if you need it, we offer a range of things on the group,including anonymous posts,their is always lots of support from admins and members.
Location: Online
Women with PTSD Support Group – Facebook Group: This is a closed group for women with PTSD/CPTSD, trauma, anxiety and or depression. No discrimination/harassment of any kind please.
Location: Online
