Jane Barker is the therapist for the Red Hawks team. She is a Licensed Social Worker in South Carolina and earned her bachelor’s degree from Clemson University. She then received her Master of Social Work from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1990. Jane says she first knew she would be a social worker when she was in Middle School and read the book of the dynamic social reformer, Jane Adams, and her work with Hull House. She believes in Social Work as a powerful tool to help families recognize their gifts and access their own personal internal and external resources.

Much of Jane’s work is influenced by her training in Bowen family systems theory that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the complex interactions in the unit. Her love for family work came from her warm, loving and interesting connections with her personal generational family system… especially the guidance of her her parents and grandmother.

Jane served as an expert witness for the state in cases involving children who are victims of sexual trauma while she worked for our region’s sexual trauma center. She also developed camps for children in crisis to address grief, and camps for children whose parents were victims of homicide. Jane also served on the Child Fatality Committee in Anderson County whose task it was to implement strategies to reduce the number of child fatalities in the upstate of SC.

Jane has a beautiful daughter, Casey, whom she adopted at 9 years old. Jane and Casey have several dogs and cats that they see as extension of their family. Jane loves the natural world and the lessons it offers and has completed two Outward Bound courses. She and Casey enjoy camping and fishing and have explored many of the State Parks of both Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Let me share a middle school story…

“When I was in middle school, I lived most of the summers with my father’s mother, Granny Barker. A southern summer at Granny’s house was truly a life of fun and adventure. It meant growing “organic” vegetables in the garden with all the cousins and aunts… and sitting under a grand oak tree in cane chairs with corn silk and bean hulls on my skin followed by getting in a “tin tub” with well water drawn fresh from the back porch well. There were long games of Monopoly, hop scotch and hide and seek. And making “frog houses,” fishing at the creek, climbing trees, catching fireflies and listening to the katydids while sitting on the front porch swing. And, of course, summer wasn’t complete without the joy of southern cooking. The small community knew Granny always had plenty to eat. So at meals, there were always visitors from the community who would just stop by for a glass of ice tea or Granny’s famous fried chicken.”