Hello and welcome to A Listening Space.
I'm Cheryl Harris Sharman (she / her / hers).
I love listening. It’s been deepened by many decades and degrees. But, before that, I was a trauma survivor. So I listen to you and your clients the way I wanted someone to listen to me. Both. And. Beyond the decades and degrees, which define my listening in different ways, I shelter people; under the beautiful, broad umbrella of Trauma-Informed Care (TIC). I listen - as a container - to create space for clients to see and find meaning; however they define that. I listen with a biopsychosocialspiritual approach. I listen to private clients, organizational clients, and clients experiencing (& transitioning out of) homelessness.
I listen (or shelter) – focusing less on individual and more on collective healing – from Primary Trauma (including Historical, Intergenerational, Racial, Spiritual/Religious), Secondary Trauma, Burnout, (the combination therein) Compassion Fatigue, and/or any of their cousins: Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Loss, Grief, Transition, Illness, Aging, and Dying.
In title, I am, in no particular order: a Consultant (including Trauma-Informed Care (TIC); Homelessness; Nonprofit Management; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); Systems / Policies and Procedures (P&P), and more); Compassion Fatigue Specialist; Compassion Fatigue Resiliency Educator; Clinical Traumatologist; Early Intervention Field Traumatologist; Spiritual Director; Retreat Leader; Spiritual Direction Supervisor; Anthropologist; Sociologist; Researcher.
For organizational/nonprofit clients, right now, as best practice to avoid Compassion Fatigue (the combination of Burnout & Secondary Trauma), I am limiting this to only work in homelessness; prioritizing those with Housing First programs. I provide both direct services and consulting; on TIC, DEI, P&P, Compassion Fatigue, learning collaboratives / case consultations / troubleshooting clinics (both remote and in-person), outreach, and much more. For clients experiencing (and transitioning out of) homelessness, I provide direct services; both 1:1 and in groups; both remote (yes, I do!), and in-person. For private clients – I’m at capacity (I am in the process of building a vast referrals page and/or some kind of collective referral network, see more below), but feel free to reach out -- I provide Spiritual Direction, Spiritual Direction Supervision, Primary Trauma Work, Hybrid Work (a both.and of Spiritual Direction and Trauma Work), Compassion Fatigue interventions, Retreats, and couples' Enneagram work.
Increasingly, clients ask me to expand my reach; that’s never been the goal, but Collective Healing is. I’m always listening; send requests, ideas, or nudges. Some frequent requests — much more likely to happen with nudges — Substack(s); intensives; groups; classes; 24/7 forums, apps, text-message-based, other method(s) of support. I dream of a collective (nonprofit or B Corp) to offer an even-broader umbrella of listeners and healers and liminal creatures and shapeshifters; both providing and receiving what Tricia Hersey – in the book of all books, REST IS RESISTANCE – calls ‘outlier connection’ I eeeeven dream that such a collective already exists; that I could aid in midwifing rather than birth it myself; that it is BIPOC-led; and/or queer co-led; that it is inclusive in every possible way (not just rhetoric, but real); and that I would be invited to join their band. If you’re out there, fellow unicorns {my supervisor calls me ‘an elder,’ ‘a standard-bearer,’ and ‘a unicorn' 🦄}, I look forward to amplifying our Collective Healing by co-laboring with you.
I listen both in person and remotely, in the U.S. and around the world. I currently live in Baltimore, Maryland. I’ve also lived in California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, and Arkansas; England; and Costa Rica.
Want to read more?
My love of listening led me to love silence. To voracious reading and dusty books. To glorious cathedrals; those with walls, and those in the woods. To REST. To the pause between the notes; the breath; the interstitial moments; the transitions. To the What before the How. To the liminal; the in-between. (I’m a contemplative; officially, a Christian – Episcopalian – with an ancient way of practicing Christianity that looks a lot more like Buddhism, if that translates.)
My love of listening led me to love justice. To bear witness. To see someone’s unfolding sacred story more clearly than their current circumstances. To fight. To speak truth to power. To advocate for all who the dominant, hegemonic culture seeks to marginalize; whether for race, ethnicity, class, education, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, spiritual beliefs, neurodivergence, or any other way they are their own person. To dismantle oppressive systems. To build better systems. To live by and model and teach practices that sustain me in my Vow Not To Burn Out. (I’m an INTJ, and my love language is Acts of Service, if those are trailmarkers you understand.)
My love of listening led me to love data. To taking good notes. To asking good questions; endless questions. To coding, analyzing, understanding, interpreting what people say. To hearing the thing behind the thing; what perhaps they didn’t even know they were saying. To providing and utilizing best-practices, such as data-driven decision-making; with instruments, tools, surveys, assessments, Google Forms/GForms, spreadsheets, decision matrices, policies, procedures, bylaws, vision statements, mission statements, Venn Diagrams, lists, calendars, planners, resources, resources, and more resources. To sleuth out and provide or create whatever I can, to thoroughly understand where they’ve been, where they are, and where they want to go; and, most importantly, that they understand it for themselves (and/or for their work, or workplace). (I’m an Enneagram Five, if you use that great tool.)
My love of listening began with a love for silence. The container of listening then widened until I loved justice. Both. And.
And then, as a tool, often sharpened by silence, and used to fight injustice, my listening grew to love data. Better than just one (silence) or the other (justice). A 3rd space. A Middle Way. A Venn Diagram. A bridge. An umbrella.
In a harsh world, my clients find shelter under this beautifully broad umbrella. It’s all Trauma-Informed Care (TIC). It’s all listening.
Ok, the official stuff.
I hold an M.A. in Sociology and Anthropology (specializing in homelessness and race) from Fordham University in New York City; 7 certifications in Clinical Traumatology, Compassion Fatigue, and related topics, from the Traumatology Institute in Canada; certification in Spiritual Direction and Retreats from the Spirituality Center on the campus of Mt. St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles (a 3-year program); certification in the Enneagram from Jerome Wagner; other trainings and certifications related to mindfulness and Soul Collage. I spent 20 years as a writer, including 15 in New York City. I’ve spent over 30 years working with people experiencing homelessness, incarceration, and/or the everyday trauma(s) of inequality around class, race, and gender (including gender-based violence). I have countless clinical hours with extreme trauma. I specialize in all manner of inequity (especially economic/poverty, racial, gender, cultural competency, diversity, inclusivity, and intersectionality) and health (including holistic/alternative medicine, mental illness, and trauma).
For my work on homelessness, I’ve pretty much done it all in the past 30 years; in many states and regions in the US, and in multiple countries. Someone recently called me ‘a veteran’ in this work, which felt right. It could all really be called listening; (portable) shelter; or Trauma-Informed Care (TIC). Or, as one client experiencing homelessness once called me: ‘a bartender without the alcohol.’ I’m always listening if you want to pitch something, but I’m currently focusing on (2) areas:
- as a consultant (especially on Trauma-Informed Care (TIC), encompassing Compassion Fatigue, DEI, P&P, outreach, and more); and
- offering direct services (on the above; to clients, staff, and leadership, in that order; prioritizing brief 4-session biopsychosocialspiritual interventions for clients transitioning out of homelessness, 7-session Compassion Fatigue interventions for staff and leadership; and ongoing learning collaboratives / case consultations / troubleshooting clinics for frontline staff (contact me to come to The Homelessness Haven – on your own, or with your staff, in Baltimore, or remotely)
I’ve worked as a consultant, researcher, practitioner, thought partner, and board member for countless organizations. I’ve conducted data-driven, evidence-based, measurable-success Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) and/or Compassion Fatigue 1:1 sessions, retreats, and interventions with staff and leadership. I’ve consulted on I've served on the Continuum of Care (CoC) in Northwest Arkansas, including developing policies and procedures, and deciding recipients, for HUD funding. I’ve developed policies and procedures; conducted outreach; and then extensive interviews to ensure that people experiencing chronic homelessness were on the By-Name List (BNL) to qualify for housing. I’ve provided group sessions and retreats, and 1:1 sessions, for clients experiencing homelessness, clients in transitional or bridge housing, clients in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), and the staffs who serve them, especially around loss, grief, burnout, trauma, and transition. I've worked as a Senior Interviewer for Deborah Padgett’s early work (when we were starting to demonstrate the success of Housing First, before she, literally, became one of its chief authors; her Housing First, with Ben Henwood and Sam Tsemberis, is a must-read). I've reported and written on homelessness in New York City, and on mental health care in rural Costa Rica, for the Lancet, among other books and articles. I completed a master’s degree in sociology and anthropology, with a thesis utilizing mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative; ethnographic and survey) on information exchange among African-American men experiencing chronic homelessness and mental illness. I helped create, fund, and staff a shelter in New York City (All Angels’ Church, which remains a model of best practices to this day). I’ve taken sandwiches to folks experiencing homelessness in England and listened as they shared their sacred stories.
I also offer The Grief Gathering each month for those navigating loss and grief.
(Note: after offering this for 3 years, it’s on hiatus, but ask if it’s something you think you need.)
keywords: contemplative practice; trauma; loss and grief; addiction; social justice; burnout, Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue; the Enneagram; mindfulness; meditation; holistic health; writing; research
