Flamingo Trauma Recovery Merges Faith and Mental Wellness to Serve Women of Color and Underprivileged Communities
Flamingo Trauma Recovery.
Conscious Coore attended Louisiana State University to study Architecture. The Louisiana native underwent a selective process to advance in the program and finish out her degree. However, she wasn’t accepted to progress through the program. Instead, she was offered to finish her degree with a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture.
Conscious Coore and her family. (Picture taken from Facebook)
“After that, there was a week or so that I felt utterly lost, wondering if I would have to drop out of college and where I would go from there. I felt so lost that it brought me to a point in worship, and moments after that, God gave me a revelation,” Coore said.
As a believer of faith, Coore changed career paths, deciding to leave the Architecture program and instead go into teaching.
“This revelation may be common knowledge now in this enlightened era, but that turning point of my education in 2012 is what landed me in my fourth year as a fifth-grade elementary school teacher in East Harlem, New York,” she said.
Through her own experiences and seeing others’ need to be fulfilled by God, Coore saw a dire demand for satisfaction in mental health and the spiritual realm. “I think that there is ‘using God in therapy’ and then there is ‘allowing God to use therapy,’ Coore commented.
“Sadly, mental wellness has to be a unique thing, but it's necessary to recognize that the life God wants us to live is a life of wellness. Seeing mental wellness as fruit and product of walking in truth is essential, and we have to wrestle with how much we really believe that Jesus is the way, truth, and life. Do we really believe in His power and His willingness to heal?” she added.
Coore believes that integrating mental health services into a program gives a voice to skilled and qualified individuals to point out conditions that impact others’ lives, while giving them practical tools to respond to them. This is why she established Flamingo Trauma Recovery to be the bridge of mental health and spiritual awakening.
“I realized that while deliverance can accomplish so much for the believer who’s willing to receive it, there are practical levels of mental health that can support them to regulate the mind physically and practically,” Coore said.
The mission of Flamingo Trauma Recovery is to “bring continuity between mental wellness and faith by merging mental health services.” This is done through the Gospel and deliverance of making it affordable and accessible. Coore felt the need to create a space for women of color and underprivileged communities to learn how faith and pain work together.
According to Coore, healing comes in many forms, but without the proper knowledge of the resources and tools that are available, the healing may never be fully experienced.
“Women of color, particularly Black women, are plagued with responsibility (both culturally and self-imposed) to support but not to be supported,” Coore said. “Women of color also struggle to find counselors and therapists they can relate to, or who understands their culture. They are also twice as likely to experience an episode of major depression than men. But only half of them will seek help.”
Flamingo Trauma Recovery is launching a pilot program on January 31, 2021. The services offered in the program are tailored to the needs of applicants. Services include group counseling meetings, one-on-one services, and deliverance sessions. The official launch of the center will be held in Fall 2021. Applicants will have the following services: online community and resources, mental health seminars, family involvement events and structured meeting spaces for worship.
“I hope everyone gains the tools needed for leading a life of sober faith and wellness,” Coore said. “My hope for the organization is that at the end of the program, every woman who enters has increased understanding and self-awareness about what it takes to live a life of wellness.”
To find out more about Flamingo Trauma Recovery, click here.