Jannet Harp, Christopher Keaton, and youth from Firmly Established, Inc. were featured on Channel 44.
By J.A. Jones, Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG — Jannet Harp and Christopher Keaton run Holistic Coaching and Firmly Established, Inc. in St. Pete, offering a variety of supportive services to families and those in recovery.
“I call it a boutique of social services,” said Harp. “We fill gaps,” she explained, noting that the different services they provide work together to help the “whole” individual.
Holistic Coaching Services provides family, group, and individual counseling as well as determinations for disability and “focused options for therapeutic interventions.” Professional business coaching and transitional housing round out the menu of support options for clients.
Their nonprofit arm, Firmly Established, Inc., is a 501(c)3 that offers youth and families financial support, low-cost or free case management and counseling and youth entrepreneurship programs.
Harp, formerly a social worker at a methadone clinic in New Jersey, laughs that she landed in St. Pete after leaving Newark 12 years ago, trying to “run from gentrification.” Once in Florida, she returned to school to get a master’s degree in social work from the University of South Florida and an MBA from Everest University.
Harp noted that she, like many who go into social work, go in it to “change the world” only to find themselves working at agencies with systems that force practitioners and clients into cookie-cutter treatment practices. But her experience in the field clarified she would need to create a new model for herself and the clients she wanted to help.
“I found myself in a position where a lot of younger people who are graduating find themselves; you’re like, okay, I have this degree, and have all of this accumulated debt from this — now let me get out and go do what I envisioned.. And then, you can’t.”
Noting the time frames placed on social workers to help clients, and stipulations from agencies and Medicaid, she found that clients were often funneled to a variety of different agencies for their variety of issues – such as being medication non-compliant. Harp said this made it difficult to really offer clients the wraparound services they needed.
“You’re limited to the way [the agency and or Medicaid] want you to do it. You have all this red tape. It just became a revolving door — people coming in, coming out. Really not helping them per se.”
She formed Holistic Services with her husband, Chris Keaton, a life coach and Transitional Housing Services director. The organization also has a board-certified psychiatrist, two licensed social workers, an on-call nurse, and accepts self-pay and insurance options.
Their professional business coaching includes helping business owners streamline their business plans, find capital, attain affordable marketing, and create websites.
Offering transitional housing – a “sober house” — that has a structured environment for those in recovery has allowed them to fund the Firmly Established nonprofit for youth and families.
“We continuously seek funding, collaboration and sponsorship for our youth seminars,” said Harp. “Volunteers with fundraising experience and a desire to help people would be of great assistance to our cause at this time.”
You can join Holistic Coaching/Firmly Established on July 21 at 7:30 p.m. for “Drag Bingo” at Punky’s Bar and Grill, 3063 Central Ave., for an awesome time with hostess Georgia Moore. Call to reserve your table at 727-201-4712. Reservations and a mask are required.
For more information on the Holistic Coaching team’s services, call 727-678-1751, or visit Holistic Coaching at https://www.holisticcoaching.info/ and Firmly Established at holisticlifecoach2.wixsite.com/firmlyestinc.
To reach J.A. Jones, email jjones@theweeklychallenger.com
