EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: The High Hat Healer

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A child without direction can lead to a life of trouble. In some cases, they may end up spending more time in jail than at home. Our Extraordinary Person of the Week is a mental health counselor. He’s an addictions counselor too. He also has a unique way of connecting with troubled youth in our area.

“Up in New Jersey, I was in a gospel rock group,” James August Zanker told WWAY’s Daniel Seamans. “We played for 7 years. I played keyboards and the drums. We played at juvenile centers and churches and we developed this therapy where we’d play and talk to the juveniles after and have pizza with them.”

After those 7 years working the junenile center and church circuit of the Tri-State area up north, he found his way to North Carolina where he’s been for nearly 20 years now.

“So I came down here and got a degree in psychology from UNCW,” Zanker said, “and they had a practicum where I was going to the juvenile center(in New Hanover County) and it went off…’wow, why not me do my own therapy’. So I started calling it Zanker Music Arts Therapy.”

Since moving here, Zanker has spent nearly two decades helping troubled kids in our area. Sometimes in his office in Downtown Wilmington in a private setting. Sometimes in more unique settings where he goes to the kids and teens because they can’t come to him.

Photo: James August Zanker uses music therapy in various settings.

For example, he takes instruments, like drums, guitars, and keyboards, into juvenile centers with a goal of creating a goal.

“I always try to encourage them,” Zanker said. “If someone is offering to play a drumset,(I tell them) take the opportunity, grab opportunity in life, there are so many lessons. It’s incredible what you can do to have them chip away at something so there is delayed gratification.”

Delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and, instead, wait for a later reward.
It’s direction for a lost soul. A road map of sorts to help get the youth on the right path.

“You get your hobbies in line, you try a lot of different things, widen the envelope then all of a sudden you’re not even thinking about the drugs,” Zanker said. “In this case, the juveniles, (not thinking about) the crime or drugs, they are just looking to do good with their lives.”

And that’s not just good, James August Zanker, that’s extraordinary!

Zanker also uses other forms of therapy, like art, in his practice.
You can find more information on his mission and services by clicking on Zanker Counseling Services.