SHELBY – Jeaneen Perry’s journey with Heritage Christian Counseling Ministries began more than a decade ago.
She began working for HCCM in a part-time role before transitioning to a full-time position five years ago. Two years later, Perry became the clinical director of the newly opened Shelby office.
HCCM was founded by Tom Russell in 1996 and was originally located on Fourth Street in Mansfield. Around 2013, he relocated the business to 1066 Lexington Ave.
As business increased, Russell opened a second HCCM branch in Ashland, located at 1060 Claremont Ave., Suite 5.
Upon retirement in September 2023, Russell sold both HCCM locations to Tyler and Leah Smith, licensed professional counselors who both work out of the Ashland office.
“Tyler and Leah (Smith) are growing their business,” Perry said. “Tom (Russell) left us both with a really good legacy. He’s worked hard to get us where we are.”
Perry is currently finalizing her purchase of the Shelby office, but still plans to collaborate with the Smiths moving forward, she said.
“It’ll have just a little bit different name, but we’ll still be working together,” she said. “But we’ll be separate entities.”
Rebrand will not change much for clients
In the next four to five weeks, HCCM Shelby will be rebranded as Heritage Christian Counseling of Shelby under Perry’s ownership.
Perry said everything will stay relatively the same for clients, while most changes will be experienced internally.
“Nothing really will change for our clients,” she said. “We’ll be getting up a new website, which we’re still working on.”
Aside from new signage and a new logo, the cozy environment and comfortable furnishings of the office will remain the same.
“The idea was homey,” she said. “That’s what we want, is for all of our therapy office to be a safe place.”
Heritage Christian Counseling of Shelby offers wide variety of services
The Shelby office is currently staffed with six clinicians and will likely be adding a seventh in February. Most major medical insurances are accepted, including Medicaid health maintenance organization (HMO) plans and Medicare.
HCC of Shelby is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and every other Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Telehealth appointments and home visits may also be arranged upon speaking with a clinician.
Perry said HCC of Shelby offers counseling in several areas including depression, anxiety, trauma and grief.
“Our goal is to just walk with people, guide them (and) assist them in whatever way we can while they’re going through some really hard times in their lives,” she said.
Counseling for individuals, couples, marriages and families is also offered, she said.
Perry said she’s frequently asked ‘what does the Christian part mean’ or ‘do I have to be a Christian to come here?’
“Absolutely not,” she said. “We see people from all kinds of walks of life.”
“That’s not what it’s about. It’s about us as who we are, our character, our morals (and) our ethics. For me, I just love people.”
Shelby staff makes a ‘great team’
Leonard Robinson, LPPC-S, practices in both the Shelby and Mansfield locations and focuses primarily on marriage counseling.
Robinson is also certified to provide court or attorney referrals for forensic mental health assessments, an ability Perry said is not frequently possessed throughout the local area.
“I don’t think there’s a whole lot of people out here that do the child custody (assessments),” she said. “I was talking to him (Robinson), he’s like, ‘I do this and this…’ and I’m like ‘really?’ That’s pretty cool.”
Perry said HCC of Shelby would be nothing if not for her staff.
“We have a great team here,” she said. “I think every one of us can say that we love our jobs.”
She also credited Ryleigh Vanichek, HCC of Shelby office manager, for her ability to keep things running smoothly, even when schedules are busy.
“It can get hectic in here sometimes,” Perry said. “She (Vanichek) just keeps us all straight and we need that.”
Addressing needs of the community
Perry shared that HCC of Shelby has recently added a drug and alcohol program to the list of available counseling and therapy services.
She said there’s a definite need for this type of programming in the community, but convincing those who need help to seek assistance is the difficult part.
“I think that it’ll be a good avenue that will help the community once it gets out that we’re doing it,” Perry said.
“We’ve only been doing it for about two months, which is really new into the program.”
HCC of Shelby is currently offering free, no obligation drug and alcohol counseling consultations.
The meetings will be confidential and are available for adults and minors.
‘There is hope’
Throughout her 13 years of counseling, Perry said the largest trend she’s seen is an increase in the volume of area youth patients, largely dealing with social anxiety.
“I started out in community mental health in Bucyrus and we didn’t see it (social anxiety) 13 years ago like we see it now,” she said.
However, Perry remains hopeful that her office can help make a difference in Shelby and surrounding communities.
“Our vision here is just to walk beside people and help them understand that there is hope,” she said. “We want to get that message out to as many people as we can.”
For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit Heritage Christian Counseling of Shelby online or call 567-844-0036.