7th Annual Journey to Wholeness Breakfast Fundraiser

Presented by Anderson McLaughlin & Russell Riebeling

Friends and supporters of Insight Counseling Centers gathered on September 25, 2025 at West End United Methodist Church in Nashville for Journey to Wholeness, a breakfast fundraiser supporting affordable mental health care, presented by Anderson McLaughlin and Russell Riebeling.

Joe Dubin, better known as “Big Joe on the Go,” lent his talent as the event emcee. In celebration of Insight’s 40th year, we heard from Ed and Pat Cole, two of the organization’s founding board members. Insight client, Halle Joy, was our featured speaker. Watch the video to experience Halle’s powerful testimony.

Video Transcript

My name is Halle, and to tell you how Insight Counseling has impacted me, I have to start from the beginning.

I’m 28 years old, and I was born in North Alabama to a family well below the poverty line and ridden with trauma and addiction. Somewhere between birth and five years old, my parents began trafficking me to feed their addiction. By three years old, I was enrolled in a therapeutic skills development class because at that age I had already begun self-harming, scratching my eyes and my cheeks until my skin bled.

I could not control the giant emotions that my little body felt, and I did not yet have the vocabulary to vocalize it. I was hurting far beyond what my being could process.

I spent most of my formative years in the Tennessee foster care system as a ward — a cost, and a title no different to the state than a prisoner. And the older I got, the more I knew that. I was secluded and abused to abasement while in foster care. The trauma I endured there was not something that I can share here, but by the age of eight my miracle family came.

I still remember the day I walked into their home. I couldn’t stop burying my nose in all of the new clothes I got. Everything smelled so clean. Everything was full of light and joy. I knew everything bad was over. I thought so.

I didn’t know why I never wanted them to touch me. Nobody explained to me why the words mom and dad and family felt like when you tried to eat a snack after using hand sanitizer. It’s stung. It was poisonous to me. And by 13 my meltdowns had gotten so bad that my adoptive family sat me down to tell me that I could never exist without a caretaker, someone to make sure I took my medication, to take me places, clean my home, and to make sure that I showered.

From then until 18, I spent weeks, years even, in group homes, in psychiatric wards. At my lowest point, I was on eight different medications a day. I had several therapists, but after my third time hearing the words, “Your therapist is no longer with us,” I knew the truth. They had quit.

On the off weeks, my adoptive parents paid others to keep me, and they called it respite. I felt unheard, unwanted, and so unseen. After 18, I knew that I never wanted to see another therapist if I ever had a say in it. It just felt like an embarrassing guessing game to figure out all the ways I was imperfect, and nobody was hearing me.

I wish I had a penny for every time I was called rude, non-compliant, and disrespectful. I just wanted someone to understand how I felt.

But after three overdose attempts, three more hospitalizations, and two failed recovery programs in my adulthood, by 25 I knew that something had to give. I was homeless. I had quit well over 20 jobs. I came face to face with the realization that I was going to have to do something, or I was going to die trying.

Shortly after, I was enrolled into a group home for survivors of human trafficking and into a job readiness program called UpRise. I knew that this was my last shot. I had to try.

One day during class to become a medical assistant, the social worker at UpRise pulled me aside and told me about a place called Insight Counseling. She spent 45 minutes convincing me to go. I have the education, but I was still homeless. I was working diligently to graduate so that I could have a place of my own for the very first time in my life.

UpRise was paying for me to Uber from Lebanon to Nashville every single morning so I could make it to class.

As everyone here in this room today knows, if you try to combat pain, homelessness, sadness, and anger while never addressing the very thing that put you there, you’ll stumble probably the whole way out.

The social worker pulled up Insight’s website and found a few counselors that matched with my needs, and with a couple of clicks I matched with Courtney. The first time I walked through the office door, I sobbed. I was so afraid to be there again: Two chairs, a couple of tables, and a couple of lamps. That was one of my worst nightmares.

Courtney met me right where I was. She never forced me to speak or explain anything I didn’t want to. We get to paint, go for walks, and color together. And on the weeks that I have to do virtual sessions due to my schedule, I sit and I get to click on Zoom, and every week she is there.

When the computer says “Waiting for host to start this meeting,” my heart always jumps, like maybe it’ll be the one time that she doesn’t come, that she calls and tells me that she can’t deal with my life anymore. And then the screen pops open, and I see a smiling, kind, helpful face ready to help me conquer the week.

She never treats me like my story is too much, never says that she can’t deal with it or carry it. She offers advice when I need it, silence when I’m overwhelmed, and hope where I sometimes don’t see any.

And I am proud to say that during the time that we have been meeting together, I have graduated school, tapered off of all mental health medications, and I now have my own apartment in Nashville, working my dream job. I have a family who has taken me under their wing, and for the first time last Christmas and Thanksgiving I was able to celebrate with a family that loves me and cares for me completely by myself.

With the help of people like UpRise and my therapist, Courtney, Insight Counseling has helped me to defy all statistics, percentages, and odds set against me from my very first breath here on earth. They’ve not just given me a therapist. They’ve given me a second chance to be a functional human with a purpose and a life that matters.

Every day is not a walk in the park. Sometimes I cry with sadness or disappointment, but I also now wipe my eyes and take the next step, knowing that there is so much good on the other side.

Invest in the Mental Health of Our Community

Insight Counseling Centers provides more than 4,000 hours of counseling to individuals, couples, and families in Tennessee every year. 74% of clients at Insight access therapy through financial assistance on an income-based fee scale, made possible by donors like you!

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