A Movie (Inside Out) and Sheffield Place Families

Have you seen the recent Pixar movie- Inside Out?

We have! Over the month of July, I had the pleasure of taking 9 of our families to see this excellent new movie. Inside Out tells the story of 11 year old Riley who experiences a housing transition with her family.

While Riley experiences moving to a new house, missing a parent who is busy with new job, starting a new school, etc. the story is focused on the journey of Riley's inner emotions (joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) as they struggle to cope with such change.

This was a fantastic film for our families who have experienced significant and ongoing transitions! Many of our children and mothers have made big moves with far less supportive caregivers than Riley did and were able to relate to the reactions of Riley's inner emotions. This movie helped our children to assign words and images to the very abstract concepts of emotions, loss and personality. It provided a great visual understanding for our mothers of emotion development and how parenting can help or hinder healthy emotional development.

For the mothers of Sheffield Place, this movie was empowering because it showed the positive influence their support can have on their children's adjustment during transition- the power they have to help their children even when life's circumstances are out of their control. For our children, the movie

validated and normalized the chaotic emotions they may have experienced as a part of their homelessness.

Finally, perhaps the most important lesson this movie had for our families is that all emotions have a purpose, even sadness, and that it is healthy to let our emotions do their job rather than stuff them down and try to be “happy” all time.

After going to the theater to see the movie- a first time experience for many of our kids, the families processed the movie with their family therapist over pizza and ice cream. Later in the month the families made collages of feeling faces and things that make them feel specific emotions using a book of Inside Out characters. Currently, in Project Hope, we have started using images from the movie to help kids talk about which feelings are “driving” their bodies in times of distress or if maybe their control panel is frozen (as in a scene from the movie) so that

they feel like they are not in control.  

I have to admit, there is little that makes a professional counselor happier than when mainstream media supports mental health and development with psychologically accurate information presented in style that is relevant and accessible to our clients. We have and will continue to use this movie as a tool for healing with the families of Sheffield Place. I hope you’ll see it too!

Stephanie O'Neal, LPC

Sheffield Place Children's and Family Therapist

JMU Students Spend Spring Break at Sheffield Place

For the 16^th year, students from JMU made the 21 hour trek to Kansas City to work at Sheffield Place.  These engaged, hard-working students could have been in warm, sunny places like many other students on spring break, but they chose to come to Kansas City and learn about the crisis of family homelessness.

Here are comments on the week provided by the students about what they learned:

• I have learned so much about how to talk to children through the examples of the teachers in Project HOPE.
• Not only was I impressed with the treatment of the children, but also with the efforts towards building parenting skills with the moms.
  
  
• Playing and interacting was my favorite part of the week.  The children have so much joy and happiness and a whole lot of energy!
• At Sheffield Place, you see these individuals who have such beautiful souls and realize that they are no different from any other person.
• These mothers have come so far and are working on a better life. 
• In the afternoon, I spent time with the most fun-loving kids I have ever met.  Knowing what they have gone through and what they may have seen amazes me how they can still get up every morning and be happy . . . . everyone who works here is truly passionate about making a difference for these families.
• Everyone at Sheffield Place displayed joy through the entire week and it took me by surprise.  They always looked for the positive side of things and showed me that I needed to be more thankful.
• I now want to learn more about the substance abuse prevention side of social work.
• This facility is an inspiring and beautiful example of how to create a community of support with and environment of hope and empowerment . . .  Each family here has a touching story of resilience and strength and I learned so much from them.
• A lot of us have really learned about the intentionality that Sheffield Place has in everything they do.  From a specific lingo of treating everyone with respect and dignity with each word to to the specificity of treatment plans for each family. 

A big thank you to these students and JMU for their longstanding partnership!