Ajuso Behavioral Health is a peer-led, community-based behavioral health organization serving Washington State.
Ajuso Behavioral Health was founded from lived experience — not a boardroom. Here is our story, our mission, and the values that guide everything we do.
The name Ajuso is inspired by someone close to our founder Felix Were — a person whose resilience and journey through hardship helped shape the heart of this organization. It reflects strength, healing, and the deep belief that people can find their way through — with the right kind of support alongside them.
That story is personal. And it is why Ajuso exists.
Today, Ajuso operates Ajuso House — a peer respite home in Stanwood, WA — and is actively building a full continuum of community-based care across Washington State.
To walk alongside people in their healing — where they are, not where a waiting room expects them to be. We provide community-based behavioral health services rooted in lived experience, dignity, and peer support.
A future where lived experience is recognized as a credential, and everyone has access to care that feels human — close to home, rooted in community, and built on trust.
This is the founding value that shapes everything else. People who have been through mental health challenges bring something credentials alone cannot give — and we center that knowledge in every hire, every service, and every decision we make.
We do not ask people to fit into a system. We design our services around where people actually are — geographically, emotionally, and in their recovery.
Every interaction — from the first phone call to the last day of a stay — should leave someone feeling respected, seen, and more hopeful than before.
Healing happens in relationships and communities — not just clinical settings. We build services that feel like home, not like treatment.
Ajuso is designed to expand — more locations, more services, more communities served — without losing the values that make it work.
We say what we can and cannot do. We do not overpromise. We tell people the truth about their options — and we help them find the right path.
Ajuso is peer-led. Our board is a majority of people with lived experience of mental health challenges — and that shapes every decision we make, from what services we offer to how we show up for the people we serve.
Felix founded Ajuso from a place of personal knowledge — what it feels like to need support and find the system falling short, and what it looks like when it finally gets it right. He brings that lived wisdom to every part of the organization.
We are growing our team. If you are a Certified Peer Support Specialist or behavioral health professional who shares our values, we would love to hear from you.
Get in touch →