News & Press

HE DOESN'T know it, but a 10-year-old Cupertino boy played a major part in Carmel therapist Julianne Leavy's life.

When she was in school studying clinical psychology, she counseled a boy whose father abused his mother.

"He was in an extremely violent home and emotionally it was affecting him," Leavy recalled the 1993 case. "He was scared every day of his life."

She created a safety plan so the boy could avoid the fallout at home. And two years ago, she formed the nonprofit Harmony at Home to help end the cycle of abuse in families. "It evolved with this first case - this was what I wanted to do, how I wanted to help children," said Leavy, who moved to Big Sur with her family when she was 10 and graduated from Carmel High in 1982.

Fresh out of graduate school, Leavy took on the more traditional tasks of helping victims fleeing abusive homes. She worked in shelters and served as a therapist for the YWCA in Monterey and Community Human Services in Seaside.

"I realized that there weren't any programs focusing on prevention - on children and ending that cycle," she said. Children of abusive parents can become abusive adults or enter abusive relationships. "I had been trying to effect change with the parents, and that wasn't working."

‘Planting seeds'

She opened her own practice in Carmel in 1996 and developed a school-based program, Sticks & Stones, for children and families suffering from domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, loss and abandonment, and trauma.

"If things weren't changing in the home, we could start planting seeds, teaching the children there are alternatives to violence and ways to express their feelings," she said. "Anger is OK - it's how to express it."

In September 2002 she published, "The Innocent Victims: A Handbook for Parents and Caregivers of Children Exposed to Domestic Violence." She wrote the book for foster families, grandparents, mothers in shelters and other adult caregivers of children exposed to domestic violence so they might understand how the kids are feeling and reacting.

Leavy received a grant to distribute 20,000 copies to agencies and shelters throughout the United States.

The story features a mother and son who flee an abusive home.

Leavy said she's received positive e-mail from readers around the country, including abuse victims who have left violent homes. "That's been an important piece of the work we do."

Harmony's role

Leavy continued working in her own practice until 2004, when she started Harmony at Home, "so I could be directly responsible and effective in raising money for these programs."

Through her new nonprofit, Leavy hopes to expand Sticks & Stones by asking donors to give $7,500 to "adopt" a school so a counselor can work with kids there.

She also wants to distribute more copies of "The Innocent Victims."

And in 2005, Harmony at Home took over a program called, "What about the children?" that was started in 1997 by a group of private therapists.

WATC helps "children understand the feelings they're having about the divorce," Leavy said. "The goal is to walk away having them realize it's not their fault."

Harmony at Home raises money for scholarships to the $350, four-week class. In a new pilot program, outreach workers in Alisal Union School District will identify those in need, "and then our coordinator will reach out and see if they want to participate," Leavy said. Harmony at Home will help with meals, transportation, baby-sitting - whatever's necessary.

"It's set up so they have no reason not to come," she said. The group also collaborates with the Big Sur Land Trust to offer summer camps for troubled young women "who have shown interest in having goals, plans and dreams but haven't had the ability to support that."

At the Glen Deven Ranch on Garrapata Ridge or the Mitteldorf Preserve in Rancho San Carlos, the week includes counseling, journaling, art, drama and dance for about 10 girls.

"Children who are witnessing abuse and are exposed to it have a lot of pain inside, and they haven't developed healthy ways to express the pain, so they take it inward," Leavy said.

"I see a lot of drug and alcohol abuse, and cutting - selfmutilation. The emotions are so intense and unbearable, they like feeling physical pain because it relieves emotional pain for a brief moment."

The camp, run by therapists who volunteer their time, helps the teens develop productive ways to handle that pain, according to Leavy. But the nonprofit itself needs help, and Leavy hopes getting its message out will garner support.

"There are a lot of agencies that are doing wonderful work with these different populations," she said. "But I feel Harmony at Home is coming from different place. Our focus is on prevention."

For more information, visit www.harmony-at-home.org or call (831) 625-5160.