Welcome
Wellness Island and The Counseling Center in Second Life®
Offering mental health resources, counseling, and a bridge to RL support since 2006
May 2010 Update - Wellness Island has closed permanently. Read below for details. *Counseling Center is still open*
Avalon's availability in SL is VERY limited for the summer of 2010 due to RL schedule. Her calendar is visible in the Web Tab of her profile and here on this site. "AVAILABLE" means there is an open time slot. New clients must fill out an intake form and a client consent form, available at our mainland location.
WELLNESS ISLAND
A message from Avalon Birke, dated May 5, 2010:
Hello everyone,
After 3.5 years, Wellness Island is closing its doors permanently. It has been a great experience to be at the very beginning of mental health resources and education in SL, and heartening to see how many groups and individuals now offer resources. We are proud to have been helpful to so many in providing library resources, speakers at your events, middle of the night IM support for your needs, and so much more.
We are closing because we are low on two vital resources - money (I purchased and have paid the tier for the island since it started, thousands of US dollars out of pocket) and time (RL clients and work have skyrocketed lately, and time for SL has become scarce). It has been a very worthy cause and if time and money were not an issue, we'd still be open. But, real world trumps SL, and it's time for a change :-) A good one, I think!
The Counseling Center will still continue in SL and we are scouting locations now. I will not only still offer in-world mental health support to individuals, couples, and groups, but am expanding to offer Skype and webcam sessions as well.
For now we still have a mainland annex with public resources
This will likely be changing as we will need something a little bigger and more private. Details to come as we have them. Our Groups will stay open as well.
It has been wonderful working with so many of you, and thank you for your support over the last few years. I will still be around, so say hello sometime! All updates will be in my Profile and on our website www.slwellness.com or my blog at http://avalonbirke.blogspot.com/
Wellness Island was Second Life®'s first sim completely devoted to mental health resources and information. We offered a relaxing, peaceful, PG environment with a library, community outreach center, auditorium, and more. All of our resources, workshops, and training classes were free of charge to SL residents seeking information about mental health and wellness.
With the closure of Wellness Island, we have added a temporary mainland location, which offers many of our same resources for visitors. Click HERE to visit.
You are welcome to join The Mental Health Network in-world for updates and news. We also sponsor the Medical Ethics and Grief and Loss Support groups, and provide free workshops and speakers for events throughout Second Life®.
Wellness Island is privately owned and 100% funded by proceeds from The Counseling Center and its owners, Avalon Birke and Martin Ichigo. We make no profit from our work, and are not funded by any outside organization. Resident donations help us stay online, offer trainings and workshops, and to develop free materials available for SL residents and used by countless Groups and service providers in SL.
Please check back here for updates, have a look at Avalon Birke's profile in-world, or join the Mental Health Network in SL to stay up-to-date.