Dr. Jean on her own journey to the Elizabeth Freeman Center (part 2)

Along with her extensive clinical practice and advocacy in the DSV (Domestic Sexual Violence) movement, Dr. Jean Clarke-Mitchell draw on her lived experience, in her work. 

She earned her Ph.D. and M.S.W. from the Smith College School for Social Work, with training in trauma-informed therapy and multicultural counseling, and she became director of clinical services for the Elizabeth Freeman Center and clinician for the Brien Center. Today she has her own private practice and mentors a new generation of therapists.

At BRIDGE, she reflected on the places where her journey began. Some of them, she says, are unprecedented at the center, and she was breaking new ground.

​Kate: Would you be comfortable sharing some of your own story? 

Dr. Jean: My own story? Yeah. My story... Well I'll start with what brought me to Berkshire County, because I have, you know, from my own upbringing with domestic violence and all the other stuff, but What brought me to Berkshire County was that I fled my husband with two children. 

At the time I was 38, I think. One was 10 and one was 6 at the time. (15:00) We came in August, on August 12, 1994, a day that will live in infamy. Anyway, we came here, and I was accepted into the Elizabeth Freeman Center. At the time it was women's services.

And so when I arrived here, I had two degrees in business, and I was also one year away from an MBA. My ex-husband's an electrical engineer, and we'd gone to college, got married and stuff like that, came back, bought a house, have a new baby coming and things just kind of fell apart. 

And so I heard about the Elizabeth Freeman Center as someplace I could escape. Because I was experiencing a lot of domestic violence, and within the domestic violence there's always sexual abuse as well. It's very rare that it doesn't happen. 

Even if it's not a physical abuse, it's not a physical sexual abuse, there is sexual abuse. Because anytime you say, "I don't want to do that. I don't want to watch that. I don't want you to look at me this way, when I'm taking my shower or whatever is happening.” it's not your consent. So it's not okay. 

So all of that was happening. The physical abuse certainly was. And so I came here, and when I arrived, I arrived at the women's services offices — all women — and then they had to take me to the shelter, all women. And they were all helping women and children. 

And at that moment I'm like, I don't belong in business. Like, I want to help people. I want to do this. Whatever you guys are doing, I want to do that. I want to help kids and moms. 

And that was a journey for me. While I was in the shelter, I took the hotline training. It had never been done before. There was no precedent for that. 

And some of the staff saying, "No, no, she's a bad woman. She can." And I remember the coordinator looking at them and said, "Does that woman look traumatized to you?" Because although I'd gone through a lot, I've always had my mom and my family. We're a strong Jamaican family, very close knit, and I've always known that I could go home. I have a place. I just didn't want to burden my mom in that way. 

So I wasn't the type of person who was so emotionally dysregulated that I couldn't function. I got up every day, I got my kids into Berkshire Country Day (School), I drove them to school every day.

So we lived in the shelter, and then I took the hotline training, and that started it for me. From the hotline training, I was able to secure a two-hour position, which was to cover the monthly meeting so the staff could go to the monthly all agency meetings. (17:30) I would be there covering the shelter when they were all away.. 

You know, I ended up one day, I ran that shelter. But when I started, it was two hours. And then I moved on to more hours. But I decided, this is what I want to do. 
So I went back to BCC and I started on a whole new associate degree, and then I went to MCLA and just kept going after that. 

And I stayed with the organization for 26 years. (18:00) I was just looking on social media, and they had sexual assault awareness day on April 1, but I wasn't available, or else I would have been standing out there in Park Square with a sign. I did that for so many years. 

So yeah, that's my story for coming here. It's a long, laborious — you imagine 30 years in what I've achieved, and what my children have achieved. (18:30) They're older now. They're 41 and 37 now. (One has a child, Ezra, now about 10 months old, Dr. Jean’s grandson.) So that's the baby that I take care of on Wednesdays. That's my love.