Today we’d like to introduce you to Juli Henderson.
Hi Juli, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Thank you for the opportunity to share my journey! I am a voice teacher and public speaking consultant at JH Voice Studio, LLC, and an author and advocate for families navigating disability, caregiving, and grief at In Our Arms, LLC.
My advocacy journey began in 1996 after the birth of our youngest two children, and it deepened when our youngest twin, Robert, passed away at eighteen from a very rare mitochondrial disease. While we cared for him, and in an effort to support the disability community, I served for many years as a disability advocate on several nonprofit boards raising awareness and resources for persons with disabilities and special needs.
I didn’t know much about rare diseases when Robert was diagnosed, and there were times I didn’t feel equipped as his mom to care for him. Over time, I learned to reach out to his medical staff, local nonprofits, and other caregiver moms to educate myself. Because I felt there was a lack of conversation about the raw truths of being a caregiver, I founded In Our Arms several years after Robert died. It is my personal blog that has grown into a community space offering hope, healing, and connection to families walking similar paths.
I later launched In Our Arms, LLC and The Robert Henderson Legacy Fund at Morgan’s (a nonprofit sparking cultural change) to expand this mission of identifying, connecting, and providing resources to caregivers and their families through Caregiver Connection events (in-person and virtual), public engagements, and resource development.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not always been a smooth road! Similar to most caregiver moms, I have had to learn how to navigate my way through medical diagnoses, special education meetings, insurance policies, and ultimately in our family, life after caring for our precious Robert. Sometimes, our journey caring for Robert placed additional responsibilities on our other four children while my husband, Dr. James “Chris” Henderson II, was deployed for months at a time caring for wounded soldiers in the Middle East.
63 million Americans provide unpaid care to older adults or persons with disabilities. This is approximately 1 in 4 adults in the United States. When I have the opportunity to share my story and include this statistic, it still shocks me and most audiences. The caregiver road has bumps, valleys and mountains along the way that bring frustration, roadblocks, and unsurmountable problems. It is not for the weak. Yet, we all will experience some interaction one day with caregiving.
For the most part, our care for Robert and our other four children was very supported by medical teams, church communities and family members. Don’t get me wrong, it was very hard work! However, many families are without support and are isolated doing the caregiving work far removed from adequate resources.
Sometimes the hardest part of caregiving and disability advocacy is actually allowing people time to accept that they will need to be a caregiver or receive caregiving one day. Learning about the isolation, hardships, and weariness of the caregiver role is usually a sudden learning curve that comes with very little preparation. Often, caregivers have to learn how to do the job and mourn the loss of dreams they’ve held for their loved one as they are doing the job! My caregiver advocacy seeks to bring awareness to these realities so each of us is better equipped for this journey.
One aspect I have embraced recently is that when there is a loss of a caregiver’s loved one, the caregiver immediately loses the person they love and their caregiving job all in one instance. For me, I was suddenly no longer holding Robert in my arms and managing every aspect of his medical and physical life. I had been fired from my very cherished caregiving job that I had grown to love so deeply. For the caregiver, I believe that particular loss and grief is very different from other types of grief, and it may linger for a very long period of time.
Today, as a caregiver advocate, sharing my journey with Robert brings honest awareness about the role of caregivers who need our support. I challenge the unrealistic thought that caregiving only touches a few of us. It will affect each of us in our lifetimes. That awareness is the current challenge as I stand in solitude with the caregivers who may walk alone in the midst of grief.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
With a very large private voice studio in Texas, I have found I can use my teaching platform not only to teach voice and public speaking, but it has allowed a space for me to encourage the next generation to adopt inclusion as a way of life. Creatives are generally very accepting of different communities of people. I am especially grateful I have the honor of teaching several students with disabilities. It is a wonderful way to invite inclusion in my voice studio as an extension of my caregiver advocacy in community. It is sacred work.
I believe I am just like any other mom who sees a need and seeks to bring awareness and solutions. I am not unique or special! I have been given the responsibility to use my voice to bring positive outcomes because our son, Robert, gave me that mandate. As In Our Arms, LLC expands, we will continue offering in-person and virtual Caregiver Connection events, and we look forward to hosting our first Caregiver Connection Conference very soon.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My husband and our five children have been my greatest cheerleaders, as well as my parents and siblings. Thankfully, I am blessed to have teammates, a fierce group of girlfriends, church members, and medical professionals who rally around me with advice and support for each new caregiver initiative.
Together with my own personal caregiver journey raising our son, Robert, I have also had the privileged of learning from the nonprofit leaders I have served alongside for over 15 years. Their wisdom, combined with our own family’s lived experience, has shaped my heart and caregiver legacy perspective.
I will always be grateful for the resilient caregiver families who continue to allow me into their lives.
Using my voice to advocate for caregivers is my honor and joy. Robert taught me well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.julihenderson.com
- Instagram: @juli.inourarms
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/Juli.inourarms
- LinkedIn: Juli Henderson
