Healing Without Judgment -- Helena Family Support
Helena Family Support began five years ago with a vision to give back. It was a calling that Jane Sharkey, KTC friend and Meditation-Thon contributor, says she was very blessed to have heard. Jane’s agency supports families in crisis, more specifically, kids in crisis. She and her five counselors take on tasks that often seem endless, with success coming in very small doses.
They type of work Helena does is to provide home-based mental health skills training and psychotherapy to children and adolescents diagnosed with a severe emotional disturbance. The referrals generally come from child protection, adolescent probations or foster care agencies. The assistance provided is usually the kid’s last hope before being sent to jail, a hospital setting, or residential treatment programs. The quest is to keep the family together and reduce their pain, trauma or abuse.
“I’ve had my own challenges in this lifetime,” Jane says. “And through them I can better know the situations my clients face. The more I can give to these people and to my own employees, the more I feel my sense of having embraced what was given to me.”
Jane says that meditation has been powerful in her work. “I do meditate for my clients, but in addition, meditation and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy enable me to approach my clients without judgment. And judgment leads to so many negative things, including violence.”
Helena Family Support, Inc. is named for a tree farm located in Helena township, Minnesota. In 1962, Ed Sharkey, Jane’s dad, became aware of the importance of planting trees to save the environment. As society depletes clean water and air, trees produce oxygen, healing the environment. Over the next 35 years Ed planted thousands of trees primarily on his beloved Helena property, providing on-going environmental healing.
The mission of Helena Family Support is to provide healing, support, education, and empowerment to families experiencing life challenges. The HFS staff strives to join their clients wherever they are at in their healing process and to guide them to their individual areas of success. Through modeling, joining, training and coaching, families can heal and expand their personal horizons, and provide safe and loving home environments.
“As much as we cannot see trees breath, we still know they that they do. It’s a point of strength, a starting point,” says Jane. “Imagine if we looked at social situations the same way, healing broken families by finding a starting point, a point of strength from which a person can grow. It might simply be a place to live, a healthy body, or a simple aptitude.”
For more information about Helena Family Support, contact Jane Sharkey at janesharkey@yahoo.com
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