Awakenings Center Data Breach 2025: 17,800 North Carolina Behavioral Health Patients Exposed. Couples & Sex Therapy Records. What To Do

Loving and Living Center, PC, doing business as Awakenings Center, is a private psychotherapy practice with offices in Raleigh (9205 Baileywick Road, Suite 200) and Greensboro (216-2 South Swing Road), North Carolina. The practice specializes in couples counseling, sex therapy, anxiety treatment, depression therapy, and other individual mental health services. On November 7, 2025, the practice filed a HIPAA breach notification with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights reporting that 17,800 individuals had their personal and protected health information exposed in a Hacking/IT Incident classified at “Network Server.”

Timeline

• On or about September 10, 2025 — Awakenings Center becomes aware that an unauthorized party accessed its electronic records system. The investigation finds the intruder may have acquired personally identifiable information and protected health information belonging to patients.
• November 7, 2025 — The practice files notice of the breach with HHS OCR, reporting 17,800 affected individuals under Hacking/IT Incident at Network Server.
• December 8, 2025 — Multiple plaintiffs’ firms publicly announce class-action investigations, including Strauss Borrelli PLLC, Lynch Carpenter LLP, and Levi & Korsinsky, LLP.

What was exposed

Per the entity’s own security notice and reporting from HIPAA Journal, the affected data elements include:

• Full name
• Age
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Relationship status
• Employment status
• City
• ZIP code

Awakenings has stated that no credit card or other financial information was involved. The exposure occurred from data fields inside the practice’s electronic clinical records system, which means the affected fields sit alongside (and are tied to) treatment records for couples, sex, and individual psychotherapy.

Why this breach is especially sensitive

This is a behavioral health breach where the contextual sensitivity outweighs what the field labels alone suggest. The exposed records sit inside an electronic system for a practice whose primary services are couples therapy, sex therapy, and treatment for anxiety, depression, and relationship-related mental health concerns. Mere identification as a patient of Awakenings Center reveals:

• A patient is in psychotherapy
• The likely treatment category (relationship distress, sexual health, individual mental health)
• Demographic context (relationship status, employment status, age) that, combined with the practice’s clinical focus, can be inferentially diagnostic

Behavioral health PHI carries heightened stigma risk in employment, custody, immigration, and insurance contexts. Even where mental health records are not protected by the stricter federal regime of 42 CFR Part 2 (which governs substance use disorder programs), HIPAA still applies — and the contextual sensitivity is comparable.

What Awakenings Center is offering

The entity’s public security notice does not announce complimentary credit monitoring, identity-theft insurance, or a managed identity-recovery service. Patients who have received a written notification letter should read that letter carefully — any offer of monitoring services and the enrollment deadline will be stated there.

Contact information published by the practice:

• Phone: (800) 701-4125
• Email: [email protected]

Class-action posture

As of this update, no consolidated class-action complaint has been confirmed in the public record. Three plaintiffs’ firms are publicly investigating: Strauss Borrelli PLLC, Lynch Carpenter LLP, and Levi & Korsinsky, LLP. Behavioral health breaches of this size typically attract one or more consolidated complaints within several months of OCR filing, often citing common-law negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and state consumer-protection statutes.

What to do if you may be affected

1. Read your notification letter carefully when it arrives — it will state the specific data elements exposed for you individually and any complimentary services the practice may offer.
2. Place free credit freezes at all three nationwide bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion). Even though no financial data was reported in the breach, freezes are the strongest single defense against downstream identity theft.
3. Be alert to targeted phishing and extortion. Threat actors who exfiltrate behavioral health records sometimes attempt to extort individual patients directly. Do not respond to unsolicited communications referencing your treatment; report them to the FBI’s IC3 portal.
4. Document the exposure. If you choose to participate in a class action, keep copies of your notification letter, any monitoring enrollment materials, and any follow-on harms (suspicious account activity, identity-theft attempts, targeted phishing).
5. Stop the ongoing flow of your behavioral health data. HealthConsent files HIPAA restriction requests so the highly sensitive treatment information held in records like these is not continuously re-shared beyond your current treatment relationship.

Sources

• Awakenings Counseling: Security Notice — the practice’s own published notice.
• HIPAA Journal: Davies, McFarland & Carroll; Awakenings Center Data Breaches — trade-press reporting confirming the 17,800 count and the legal entity name.
• Strauss Borrelli PLLC: Awakenings Center Data Breach Investigation — class-action investigation announcement and timeline detail (September 10, 2025 access; November 7, 2025 OCR filing).
• Lynch Carpenter LLP via GlobeNewswire — class-action investigation announcement.
• Levi & Korsinsky, LLP via AccessWire — class-action investigation announcement.
• HHS Office for Civil Rights Breach Portal — the federal regulatory record of this breach.