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Seeking Peaceful Solutions heals By treating the whole person

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Seeking Peaceful Solutions Inc. (SPS) is a non-profit organization launched in response to social, economic, and health-related needs in the community and provides dispute/conflict resolution, mental health services, and other treatments focused on youth and families in crisis.

Seeking Peaceful Solutions’ mission is to provide services that are family centered, and that lead to empowerment, self-sufficiency, and an improved quality of life. They have emerged as a major advocate within Los Angeles for their contribution to the elimination of many ethnic disparities.

SPS treats people on an out-patient basis, and their mental health services include: Anger management, domestic violence prevention, parenting education, sexual abuse awareness, gang intervention and prevention, conflict resolution, and a focus on alcohol and drug treatment.

Janisa Spears founded SPS in October 2005, after first working in the domestic violence arena.

“We never handled mental illness or drug abuse or anything, but we were counseling these women. I wanted to see the other side. I could tell there was more to the story, but we weren’t there to handle that.”

The creation of her own treatment center enabled Spears to concentrate more heavily on the mental side of the ills threatening the community.

What makes SPS stand out from other treatment centers is their dedication to healing the whole person rather than just the addiction. Spears and her staff believe their approach helps get to the root of a problem and therefore leads to a lower relapse rate.

“When I came to Seeking Peaceful Solutions, I was a broken man. Even though I had worked for a major corporation for 29 years and made a great deal of money, I was broke and homeless. SPS was not my first treatment center, but as always, I hoped it would be my last. As much as I wanted to stay clean, I was just unable to get more than three months at a time. I felt embarrassed each time I had to check into another treatment center. It was different at Seeking Peaceful Solutions. I was made to feel welcome. In all my previous treatments, my mental health issues were never addressed. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and placed on the proper medication.

“What a difference. Seeking Peaceful Solutions’ approach to recovery is to treat the whole person; not just their addiction to substances. It has been over a year now since I have used crack cocaine or any other substance. I have my life back. I have a home for the first time in 12 years,” said K.J. about his experience at SPS.

Like most non-profit organizations, Seeking Peaceful Solutions has been hit hard by the economic downturn. “It is our biggest accomplishment that we have sustained,” said Spears. “Our clientele got really low. At one point we went from 45 youth down to eight and from 46 adults down to about six. The fact that we are still here means everything.”

In addition to the services that Seeking Peaceful Solutions provides in-house, they also provide referrals to specific treatment centers, housing opportunities, family planning and more.

For additional information, contact Janisa Spears at seekingpeacefulsolutions@yahoo.com.

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