Northbrook center combines addiction counseling with Jewish spirituality
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10th) recently toured a new outpatient center for people recovering from addiction, which combines counseling with a spiritual program from the Jewish tradition.
The Kleiman Campus for Jewish Hope and Healing, 3320 Dundee Road in Northbrook, offers religious services, education activities, mental health services and spiritual counseling. It is also the new permanent home for Congregation Anshe Tikvah, which did not have a permanent home until now.
"It's a really beautiful space," Rep. Schneider said. "That we have this here in Northbrook, in a place where people can feel confident and comfortable coming to close to home, is really important."
Rabbi Rob Jury said the building, built in 2001, was purchased from the Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago, which no longer required as much space as it did in the past.
"We saw this as an opportunity to continue using a Jewish space to engage in a broader mission of bringing about education and healing and recovery into the community," Rabbi Jury said. "And so we purchased the building from them and began renovations."
Rabbi Jury said counseling is provided for addictions to both substances and non-substances and, more broadly, mental health.
"There's sometimes a misperception that addiction is only about substance," Rabbi Jury said. "So, addiction can be about substances or non-substances, and addictions also come with co-occurring disorders, other mental health needs."
One aspect of the center's layout that impressed Rep. Schneider was a small room that was furnished as a dining room so families can participate in counseling together in a homelike setting. Other rooms include an area where chairs are arranged in a circle for more traditional group counseling, worship space, a library and offices.
"It's really wonderful," Rep. Schneider said.