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Butterfly release is back as Faulk Center brings awareness to mental health

South Florida Sun Sentinel - 5/7/2021

Commemorating Mental Health Awareness Month, the Faulk Center for Counseling in Boca Raton has partnered with Healthier Delray Beach’s Get Your Green On initiative for a butterfly release and virtual event at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 18.

The annual event, which didn’t happen last year because of COVID-19 restrictions, will take place in a hybrid format. Participants can watch the event through the center’s Facebook Live broadcast, while a select number of donors and community partners will be in attendance.

“It became a symbolic gesture,” Faulk Center CEO Jonathan Price said. “What can we do to bring awareness to mental health? What would resonate with our volunteers, our supporters, our funders? They settled on the idea of a butterfly release, being that butterflies represent rebirth, renewal, and it just kind of took off. It grew successfully year after year.”

The Faulk Center — founded in 1973 — provides no-cost and low-cost mental health services to individuals and families of all ages who otherwise could not afford counseling.

Offering an array of counseling resources, the center’s services are provided by graduate students pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees in psychology, social work or mental counseling. Clinical volunteers, who hold advanced degrees in a mental health field, are also on hand to help provides services.

All graduate students and volunteers are trained and supervised by the center’s staff of licensed psychologists.

“Mental health services are expensive,” Price said. “If you’re on the private market, you’re talking $200 on the cheap-end per session. Mental health services many times are not covered by insurance... Our services are cheaper than most co-pays and one-third of the cost of mental services. That’s because of the amazing funders who believe in what we do.

“I think people sometimes equate the discounted price with discounted quality of service, and honestly seeing it with my own eyes, you’re getting great services for a great price,” Price said. “It’s not discounted because the services are discounted. It’s discounted because we’re great at what we do, we change lives every day and people see that and fund us so we can offer these services.”

Partnering with the Get Your Green On initiative for the first time, the Faulk Center resonated with the message the organization was delivering and was emphatic about working together.

Get Your Green On, an annual Palm Beach County event, raises mental health awareness by creating visible support and fostering safe places to talk openly throughout the month of May.

Spearheaded by Healthier Delray Beach, Get Your Green On encourages individuals to wear green — the color of mental health — on May 21 and post pictures on social media using the hashtags #GetYourGreenOn or #GYGO2021.

Visit faulkcenterforcounseling.org/.

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