Section Sponsored by:

Johnnie Sexton, AuD, has spent more than half his life--33 years, to be exact--helping children and adults who have hearing difficulties.

To accomplish this, Dr. Sexton, who resides in Wilmington, NC, and serves as president of John E. Sexton and Associates Inc., has worn every hat imaginable--teacher, speech therapist and, most recently, audiologist. But in recent years, he has embarked on two separate projects that serve as a testament to personal and professional growth.

Johnnie Sexton, AuD

Around the same time, he embarked on a personal mission--returning to school to get his AuD degree. This is his tale of personal and professional triumph and the people who affected his life along the way.

The CARE Project logo--CARE is a beacon of hope, hence the lighthouses--a painting by Xris Kessler.

The CARE Project
After almost 30 years of working with children, Johnnie Sexton had a thorough understanding of how audiologists and others in the profession counseled families through the sharing of information. In his estimation, they were doing a pretty good job.

"The profession does so well with the information counseling by talking to family members and explaining diagnostics," he says. "I think audiologists really work hard to keep families aware of what's happening with their child."

At the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was another aspect to counseling that was being somewhat neglected--the emotional, coming-to-terms aspect of raising a child with a hearing loss. "We tended to steer away from that emotional aspect--helping families to feel comfortable with what they were experiencing," he says.

In 2005, Dr. Sexton jumped at the opportunity to serve as chair of a national counseling committee aimed at helping children. While he called the experience "great," it also re-affirmed his feeling that not enough was being done to address the specific grief of dealing with a child's disability. Thus, he embarked upon a year-long journey that would lead him to establish The CARE Project.

Aimed at addressing the grief associated with hearing loss, the CARE Project Inc. became a nonprofit organization dedicated to the goal of bringing hope through counseling experiences to families who have children and/or adults with hearing challenges.

Dr. Sexton is fortunate enough to live near a company with an onsite movie studio, which he utilized to produce and shoot his own films with stories of families who were coping with hearing loss in one of their loved ones.

"That became the heart of the program," he recalls. "The ability to record these stories and share them with other families gave [the families] the sense that they were not alone in the world--that the feelings they were experiencing were normal. Grief is an ongoing process throughout one's lifespan."

At the same time, Dr. Sexton took his message to audiology professionals in order to make them feel more comfortable addressing such issues of emotion with affected families. After all, as hard as it is to receive bad news about a loved one, it's often just as hard to be the bearer of that news.

"Oftentimes, when parents are given bad news about the child, they're in shock," says Dr. Sexton. "They kind of shut down, yet we're still trying to educate them, give them tons of information--pamphlets, books, other resources. Both sides are important, but did we give them a chance to process those emotions? This is a way to help professionals understand the value of active listening and participate in that process."

Timmy, the main character in the CARE Project story book, illustrated by Xris Kessler.

Dr. Sexton alludes to both the successes and failures,which he prefers to regard as challenges, of establishing the delicate balance between professional and grief counselor, for lack of a better term.

"At first, I was looking for a way to work with families but still concentrating on being an expert in the area of hearing loss," he recalls. "I guess the failure, initially, was not realizing that the need to address people's emotions up front is most important."

Dr. Sexton admits that finding a balance that made everyone comfortable was a trial-and-error process. It took one special interaction to give him the necessary level of comfort.

"I would call this my greatest success story to this point," he relates. "One family was part of my film work; I sat down with a set of parents whose seven-year-old child was experiencing hearing loss."

The family had known about their child's hearing loss for some time, but it wasn't until they sat down with Dr. Sexton last August that they were able to deal with their emotions. "They made this leap, going from the shock of the diagnosis to openly advocating for their child," he says. "But they never took the time to openly grieve until they sat down in front of that camera."

Dr. Sexton found the moment so powerful that he shares the video clip on his Web site, www.thecareproject.me. "They've become kind of my personal case study," he admits.

Not only has the family unit grown closer, but after the meeting with Dr. Sexton, the child decided to get a haircut--no longer fearful of exposing a hearing aid--joined a karate club and became more engaged socially. 

"They live nearby, and so I see them so often that they've almost become like my own family. Over a period of several months, they've become a happier family. It validates the importance of the grieving process."

Back to School
Around the same time as the inception of The CARE Project, Dr. Sexton was embarking upon another career- and life-changing project.

"I'll be the first to admit that I had pretty much decided against going back to school and getting my AuD," Dr. Sexton admits. "My career certainly isn't over, but we're safe to say it's in its senior years."

Last fall, however, Dr. Johnnie Sexton graduated from A.T. Still University with his Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree. He credits his motivation to an instructor friend who bridged the topic at dinner one night.

"I was interacting with friends in my similar age category, and [my friend] was an instructor in an AuD program," he recalls. "He really challenged me."

Several weeks later, and 30 years after entering the field, Dr. Sexton decided to pursue his degree. "I wanted to see what it could do for me, personally and from a career standpoint."

Johnnie Sexton; Ella, Luci and Tanner Hosley (Tanner is an 8-year-old boy with large vestibular aqueduct syndrome; he appears in the CARE film); Xris Kessler, CARE Project media director.

It's safe to say he benefitted from the experience. Despite his many years in the field, Dr. Sexton reports that he enjoyed and learned from every class he took, while enjoying the process of making new friends and establishing camaraderie with others going through the program. "A.T. Still offered a wonderful, flexible program that helps students to work with their careers as well as their personal lives," he says.

Most of all, Dr. Sexton emerged from the process with increased confidence and enthusiasm for his own abilities. Achieving the highest credential in one's profession of choice is an impressive accomplishment, regardless of the circumstances, but for someone who could've easily rested on his laurels in the process of a distinguished and accomplished career, it spoke to a higher level of motivation.

"Hopefully, I can be a role model for others," he says. "It certainly took a few role models for me to get to this point. If I, in turn, can do the same for others, that would be the real accomplishment."

He's well on his way; recently one of Dr. Sexton's employees applied and was accepted into A.T. Still's audiology program.

For more information on CARE Project Inc.: www.thecareproject.me

Rob Senior is managing editor at ADVANCE and can be reached at RSenior@advanceweb.com