May 21, 2015 By David Singer 5 min read

South Hills Assembly, the church that hosts Compassion Connection, celebrates its 50th anniversary in May. As executive director Pastor Kay Stepp helps the nonprofit’s board of directors find her replacement by August when she steps down after more than a decade of service, she’s highlighting the organization’s goals for anyone who seeks its help.

“This whole project started out of my healing journey from breast cancer. I just felt such a compassion for people in less than good circumstances that I wanted to see them heal as I did,” she said of the process that includes mental, physical and spiritual healing. Yet, she’s quick to note that Compassion Connection is here for anyone who may need mental health and spiritual habilitation, even if they are not a believer in God.

“We are, however, a Christian center. The living dynamic of making healing through the word of God and prayer is important to us. Each of our counselors has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Just being able to show people a path to wholeness by showing love as Christ did is so important,” Stepp said. But the implementation of Jesus’s word as truth – and it as basis for spiritual healing – is left to each counselor. According to certified professional counselor Cindy Pfrimmer, helping people comes first.

“I’m a counselor first, Christian second in this role. I’ve made it my role to build a relationship with the client first and only bring in spiritual elements to them if they are open to it,” Pfrimmer said, “and that’s part of the intake process. ‘Is faith important to you? What spiritual aspects do you want to discuss, if at all?’ But above all, we’re here to meet their needs and abide where they’re coming from. So, sometimes people want to pray, and sometimes there’s no prayer at all.”

It’s important, Prfimmer said, particularly in group or individual sessions regarding marriage or relationship counseling, when a “secondary person” or partner may not share faith to the same degree.

“The ironic thing I see often is more people bring up problems with their faith inside a counseling session than I’ve seen in church or other religious settings. When they’re in counseling with us, I’m free to talk about doubt being part of faith, and to normalize it and really get into those candid dialogues; being allowed to doubt, realizing not having an answer is part of faith,” she said. Doubt isn’t limited to faith, she said, and can creep into the secular, everyday problems of a person’s life, and thus, affect others’ loved ones.

One person who benefited from the sessions the past two years and is still going is Heather from Bethel Park.

“I initially went after my mom found a pamphlet at church. I went for problems with an alcoholic father, had some self-esteem issues, relationship issues, co-dependency, those sorts of things,” she said, explaining that before this year, she had trouble with relationships with the opposite sex-friends or otherwise.

“I’ve learned how to set boundaries and self respect and what I want out of relationships. It’s been 180 degrees for me,” she said, noting that she now goes to marriage preparation classes with her fiancé. The two recently got engaged.

“He said, ‘Anything that can make use better, I’m all for it.’ And then in group sessions, it really does help to hear others’ problems and strategies,” she said, “even if I had to travel 50 miles for these classes, I’d still do it. Because other therapists, I felt like I was being judged. Here, you’re comfortable examining yourself, your problems, and if you want, like I did, your faith.”

The Compassion Connection only takes Highmark Insurance at this point for clients, yet does have a benevolence scale that can have clients paying as little as $10 for sessions, according to Pastor Stepp.

Community coordinator and class teacher Tom Kwiatkowski said the organization offers group classes on subjects one might not expect, from Alzheimer’s Caregivers’s support groups, to financial management and his class, “Healing is a Choice,” or even the comically-named “How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk/Jerkette.”

“Addiction recovery and adolescent addiction recovery are our most attended classes,” Kwiatkowski said. “In those groups and in my class, there’s something that has been acknowledged: you can’t heal on your own. Whether it’s through God or the help of others, what happens when we seek healing through ourselves, we just dig a deeper hole, and sometimes to the point where a person doesn’t want to leave their home. You are not alone and you need to know that.”

Kwiatkowski said Compassion Connection will continue to host novel support events like Soberfest – a “practical counter” to Oktoberfest – on Sept. 19 at South Park’s Fairground Museum Building.