“God didn’t make someone’s other half. He only made whole people.”
“We wear $10,000 dresses just to walk down the altar and die.”
“Stop collecting red flags like you’re the United Nations.”
These aren’t catchy phrases or Instagrammable lines. They’re strong sentiments that reflect the heart of The Well Experience Collective’s recent event, Dating Well, held in Portchester, New York. This was not your ordinary singles event. In fact, it moved beyond the topic of relationships in a way today’s culture badly needs.
The premise is simple but countercultural: singleness isn’t a waiting room for the right person. It’s where you become a whole person, and that wholeness is what makes dating well possible. “Dating well means being whole within yourself first,” says Shae Palmer, founder of The Well Experience and host of Dating Well. Palmer is a licensed clinician who recently birthed an idea she’d been carrying for ten years. Her vision didn’t just come to pass; it was executed in excellence, and it became a breakthrough moment for many of the attendees.
The event featured a panel discussion followed by a time of fellowship, an amazing spread of food, then prayer and deliverance. It struck a rare balance: hard truths beautifully spoken, real heart work, and at times the unpretty work of deliverance, all wrapped in love and held in a beautiful setting.
By the end, the room was in awe of what God graced the panelists to speak and how He moved. The event was refreshing because it didn’t center on finding the right person or being matched with someone. It centered on becoming a whole person, and Palmer did this masterfully by bridging faith and mental health.
That bridge is the whole point. Dating well isn’t just about finding the right person. It’s about being the right person, so you have the mindset to choose the right person. And that’s made possible not by faith alone but by sound mental health: addressing trauma, wrong perceptions, and the many other issues that cause believers to end up in relationships they should have avoided.
Wholeness is the foundation. Dating well is what becomes possible once that foundation is laid. It was eye-opening to witness a platform on singleness that wasn’t really about singleness at all. It was about being whole.
