In this beautiful reflection, Sara explains how 10 years at NAOMI have shaped her.

I had spent over a decade working with families before joining an organization where my Creator would call me to learn how to love women deeply and show me my desperate need to be loved. When I began my journey at NAOMI our only child (a son) was three years old.  During the next 10 years while serving at NAOMI I carried and gave birth to three little girls. Staying in a commitment to journey with other women who are healing while learning how to heal in my own life was never part of my plan. Learning how to raise three women in my own family while doing so often seems impossible.

“All the reasons I drank were still present and eating me alive.”

Ashley got sober without getting well. 

“I needed to know why I was the way I was, and I needed friends who were actively working to be healthy mentally, spiritually and emotionally.” Ashley found those relationships at NAOMI and began to understand the why behind her choices.

“We dig deeper. We get to the root causes.”

Bella’s story is all too familiar. Drugs. Violence. Neglect. Abuse. Adverse Childhood Experiences. If you grow up with them, they cling to you like static, especially if you also lacked Positive Childhood Experiences. Abundant research shows that childhood trauma alters the way the brain develops.

But all is not lost. Relationships have the power to heal the damage done to the brain by trauma.