Gabriel House is more than a house of lodging
When Gabriel House opened in April 2011, its mission was to provide affordable, temporary lodging for those coming to Jacksonville for either an organ transplant or cancer treatment. That remains our core mission. Yet over the past few years, in an effort to help our guests further cope with the emotional stressors associated with long-term illnesses, we created a Community of Healing with additional support programs.
“Our guests walk through our doors weighted down with an enormous amount of anxiety, depression, stress, and emotions that they don’t know how to handle,” explains Valerie Callahan, executive director. “So we asked ourselves, what can we do to help them manage these feelings? Through our complimentary Integrative Therapy Program, we offer classes to provide coping skills guests can use long after they return home.”
Some of these programs are based on sound medical research, like mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and yoga classes while the cooking/nutritional instructional classes help guests and caregivers adapt to new lifestyles with specific diet requirements for compromised immune systems. These classes are free for our guests and caregivers.
The feedback we have received from guests who have participated in the classes over the last 18 months, has been very positive. Diego Castano, a long time guest and one of the first lung transplant patients to stay at Gabriel House, gave this response to the mindfulness class:
“I have been visiting Gabriel House along with my wife, daughters, and other caregivers since my transplant days back in June 2011 shortly after the house opened. The results of the staff and volunteers’ labor and dedication to this noble cause, have impacted many lives (both patients and caregivers) and eliminated and/or mitigated pain, caused by sickness. These combined efforts have also helped in improving our health and spirits.
Among the many programs you have at Gabriel House, the yoga and mindfulness classes have been of great value to my wife, daughters, and ALL the caregivers who have stayed with me. It helped them deal with and manage the daily barriers and stress we encounter in life. For many of them, it was their yoga experience and all I can tell you is they got hooked on this philosophy. For me, I attended the mindfulness class during my last visit and I was able to sit down, meditate, and relax for two and a half hours. You know me and for me to sit down for this amount of time, something must be wrong! I observed the faces of those attending the classes. They ‘transported’ themselves and when the classes ended nobody wanted to leave. They all had questions and were in a different world. Please keep them going as they do wonders for all of us.”