Groups Are In Session – Connections Wellness Group

Why is it, if Aunt Lucy contracts COVID, we use a normal voice to tell our friends, ‘Oh, dear. Aunt Lucy has COVID and I’m worried’?  But, if Aunt Lucy is diagnosed with depression  or personality disorder or any other mental health issue, we either say nothing, or we whisper the news to only a select few?

COVID and depression are both components of our overall health. One is not normal and the other abnormal. They simply affect different parts of our persona and, therefore, should be spoken about in the same tone of voice, cause no embarrassment, and treated appropriately so that body, mind, and soul function in harmony.

Connections Wellness Group,  with its flagship campus on Teasley Lane in Denton, has taken that approach and it’s resulted in the company’s explosive growth. Founded in 2018 by former CEO Awstin Gregg, there are already 16 locations in the greater Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex and the greater Nashville-Memphis area.

There were 22,000 patients treated by Connections Wellness Group in 2020 and 100,000 in 2021. Those numbers continued growing exponentially in 2024. The basic philosophy of the company is based on the same relationship principles of everyday life. Every individual’s existence is built on relationships – with your spouse, your children, your pastor, your parents, your doctor, your postman, and even your trash collector. Connections Wellness is held together by its connections with patients, personnel, treatment locations, treatment protocols, results, and an almost endless list of others.

“The mental health stigma is being reduced,” said Alexandra (Alex) Arbour, Executive Director at the Flower Mound location. “It’s now okay to pursue treatment. There’s less shame and more encouragement. The objective is to normalize mental health. It’s a part of all of us, and the changing attitude is being helped by people with big voices.” 

In recent years, those “big voices” include famous celebrities and headlining professional athletes. Most recently, the list expanded to include the teenage son of 2024 vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.

Connections Wellness Group demonstrated a forward-thinking courage when it decided to phase out the long-accepted one-on-one, patient-facing-therapist form of treatment, replacing it with a group format.

“We focus on partial hospitalization (PHP) and/or intensive out-patient (IOP) group therapy,” Arbour explained. “Patients enroll in four-to-six-week programs, five days a week, for three to four hours each day. The PHP is a higher level of care, but both programs are very similar, with IOP being a bit less demanding.

“The objective is to provide structure and coping tools. We follow a certain curriculum, and patients in the group programs find more support and a definite degree of accountability. There’s a high level of empathy in the groups, with the patients frequently learning from one another. 

“All patients will end up in group therapy, since those who begin in PHP will move on to IOP. The finish line goal is the same regardless of the program — to help the patient get better faster. 

“Many of the one-on-one therapists who phased out of our program opened private practices. That’s wonderful because it means we have excellent referrals for patients seeking continuing support after they leave us.”

The Flower Mound campus accepts adults only, but other locations accept adolescents, young adults, and all the way down to five-years-old. There are also recreational therapists who travel site-to-site to offer creative therapy such as painting and exercises such as stretching.

Groups are capped at 10 members, providing enough time and space to connect each patient with meaningful, life-improving solutions for positive change that will result in overall wellness. It’s a beautiful, holistic approach destined to create the very best lives. The overall atmosphere is based on an upbeat, positive dynamic that offers convenient, comprehensive, cost effective, and easily accessible services that are moving mental health out of the shadows and into the bright light of normalcy.