WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio — Sharri Thomas, a former Maple Heights City Council Member, left politics and co-founded the nonprofit Rivers in the Desert to help provide a safe place for families to process grief following traumatic events like the death of a loved one from violence.
The nonprofit has worked with hundreds of adults and children for years, but this past summer, it launched a mobile trauma unit called The Healing Room.
Soft music and a pleasant fragrance welcome people into an RV where conversations get to the heart of grief.
“This begins that healing process immediately. People have a place to get that trauma out of their hearts, out of their minds and out of their bodies,” Thomas said.
She started the nonprofit following a double murder that occurred in front of her home in Maple Heights in 2021.
This was my way of healing myself over and over. I had to do something.
“And I didn't realize that collective trauma was a thing,” Thomas said. “This was my way of healing myself over and over. I had to do something.”
Thomas said disenfranchised and disinvested communities often don’t have access to or financial means for counseling following an unexpected death like a murder, overdose or suicide.
“You see this as lifesaving? I asked Thomas.
“If you look at a community where you see one murder and you see like three or four murders after that, a lot of times it's retaliatory murders,” Thomas said. “People don't have a place to put their pain. So yes, this could save not only the life of the person, the family member, but it could save the life of someone else's family.”
The Healing Room provides free access to peer support, case managers, and social workers who can meet people at the scene of a tragedy or wherever.
Retreats and planned sessions are also available.
Thomas recently had a session with children who attend a local Boys and Girls Club. She said topics surrounding crime and safety were raised.
"What I learned was they have no place to talk about it,” Thomas said. "It just becomes a part of this crisis."
A feeling chart is one of the tools used in The Healing Room to help clients open up.
"It’s one thing to feel it, but these talk about how it (a feeling) is lived out,” Thomas said.
Coloring activities, painting, and journaling happen in a living room setting she calls the place of exchange. Thomas said it's another way to release pain. Rocks with supportive words are also given as keepsakes.
Judy Martin’s healing is an ongoing process.
"There are steps that you move forward, move backwards, but there's no closure, because that would mean that never happened,” Martin said.
Her son, Christopher, was murdered in a 1994 robbery. He was 27 years old.
"I didn't hate the young man that killed my son,” Martin said. “I hated what he did because I knew [if] I spent my time hating him I would die.”
After Martin’s son’s death, she started Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, Inc. to help other families, mostly mothers who’ve lost children, navigate grief. She also works with the Black on Black Crime, Inc.
Martin applauds what Thomas and The Health Room are doing.
"I think it's incredible because too often we forget about the children in the family,” Martin said.
She hopes it comforts hearts and builds relationships.
“When people in the community see it they know what it's there for. They know that it can help them,” Martin said.
For more information on Rivers in The Desert and The Healing Room, call 216-772-0313.
Thomas said she's having various conversations with area schools and law enforcement to bring The Healing Room to various community settings.
