AURORA | The list of offerings at the Aurora Strong Resilience Center hardly reads like the calendar for a mental health facility. On Wednesday and Friday you can stop by for a tai chi class. On Monday there’s a bible study group and on Saturday yoga.
And while it isn’t on the calendar, traditional counseling services are also offered with a therapist on site five days a week.
Kirsten Anderson, a psychologist and Disaster Coordinator for Aurora Mental health, said that non-traditional mix is crucial because it gives anyone grieving an opportunity to get help, whether they prefer a standard, sit-down counseling or something else.
“There is something for everyone because everyone recovers from these things in different types of ways,” she said.
Monday marks the three-year anniversary of the Aurora theater shooting, which left 12 dead and 70 wounded in one of the worst mass shootings in the nation’s history.
A year after the attack, the Resilience Center — a partnership between Aurora Mental Health, the city of Aurora, Anschutz Wellness Center and Colorado Organization for Victims Assistance — opened in the basement of the old Hoffman Heights Library at 1298 Peoria Street offering free services for any Aurora resident — not just people who were in the theater.
Since then, the center has become a hub for survivors, their families and other community members still reeling from that horrific night three years ago.
The center has hosted anniversary events and served as a place where victims and survivors can connect with other people who were in the theater that night or lost a loved one, or victims of other similar attacks. Anderson said the center has helped Aurora theater shooting survivors with survivors of the Columbine High School shooting.
“Their best support comes from each other,” she said. “We just wanted to be the vessel where that can happen.”
The center feels like a cross between a typical recreation center — with various classes on the calendar and meeting spaces available — and a counseling center.
Anderson said that while the focus of a typical recreation center tends to be physical wellness, the Resilience Center’s focus is on overall wellness, in particular the connection between the body and the mind. That’s why the always-popular tai chi class is a good fit — it’s physical activity aimed at stoking mental well being.
Plus, Anderson said, having the classes on site makes it easier to connect with people who want that sort of therapy.
“It’s easier to do those things than it is for a therapist to tell you to go do them,” she said.
Matthew Dolezal, who was in theater No. 9 when the shooting happened, said he has been coming to the center since it opened in summer 2013.
“It’s sort of like my second home,” he said while attending a tai chi class at the center last week.
Dolezal said being around the staff and other survivors is a huge help, but there is also a peaceful feel to the center that makes him keep coming back.
“The energy from this place is just awesome,” he said.
Anderson said any time the shooting is in the news again — as it will be around the anniversary and with the shooter’s trial winding down in Arapahoe County District Court — the center sees a spike in people seeking out their services.
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