By Sister Frances Smalkowski, CSFN
In our 150th anniversary year, besides the gift of being part of its celebration, I am thanking God that several of our Sisters have recently completed studies in family and mental and behavioral health. Our Mother Foundress was always open to the special needs of the times, and these needs are indeed more prevalent.
Fifty years ago, on November 1, 2024, our CSFN Leadership "took a chance" and gave me a vote of confidence to begin a part-time private practice in family and adult counseling and psychotherapy in Monroe, CT. At the same time, I continued my geriatric and school nursing at our Motherhouse. Because the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) grant I received required some direct services to persons experiencing mental health struggles, I requested to start offering such services.
To try to speak about the numerous encounters and gifts that have been received through these 50 years would require that I write a book! Ministering in the same town and also being in close contact with local schools--various mental health and other boards--along with previous clients and their referrals, I experienced a quick growth from the beginning because of the need. In time, too, taking a position in a diocesan long term care facility as a nurse psychiatric clinical specialist for many years helped me clarify the decision about the time commitment to the practice. What a joy to encounter former clients since I am still assigned here in Monroe!
This poem I dedicated to a recently deceased client who taught me so much:
Broken souls
Yours and mine;
Broken hearts
Took years to find.
It seemed forever
This short life of yours--
Filled with pain
You had to endure.
No one else
But you could know
The depth its daily
Distress might show!
Sister Frances Smalkowski, CSFN
