Face2Face Healing

Our Story

Face2Face Healing (F2F) was founded five years ago in response to a lack of services for persons dealing with facial and bodily disfigurement. Funded by grants from the Shadyside Hospital Foundation, Ms. Louise Brown, provided essential guidance and encouragement, which allowed us to become independent and broaden our scope in the community. Our initial grants have allowed us to incorporate as a 501(c)(3) and we have been reliant on key board members to provide outreach and counseling services. Given the psychosocial distress and frequent limited resources of individuals and families served, we provide all services at no charge to individuals with disfigurement.

F2F was created in response to the needs of persons who have unique appearances, unfortunately commonly referred to as deformities or abnormalities. Our staff and volunteers have worked with people facing facial and body differences caused by cancer, burns, congenital anomalies, Bell’s palsy or other neurological issues, and trauma. A majority of the people with whom we have worked have facial concerns, frequently experiencing partial paralysis and lack of symmetry in their facial movement. We also serve persons who deal with visible differences in other body parts. These challenges can be devastating and can lead to isolation, loss of jobs, and strains on social and personal relationships. Individuals often suppress facial expressions, including laughter, consequently suppressing emotions and impeding outgoing communication. We are the only organization in Western Pennsylvania that provides everything under one umbrella, to assist people with disfigurement.

The mission of F2F is: Building support through a community of individuals with disfigurement to promote healing through outreach, advocacy, interaction, activity, resources, and education. Our vision is: All individuals with disfigurement feel acceptance of themselves and empowered.

At this point in our development as an organization, the infrastructure is in place for expansion of services. Our contacts with individuals with disfigurement and health professionals, both locally and nationally, indicate a tremendous need for dissemination of our programming. Our focus for the next program year is to increase our direct services to people with disfigurement within the Western Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. There is no other organization in the United States that has supportive services like those of Face2Face Healing.While the healing process is slightly different for each person, the goal of Face2Face Healing remains constant: empower the individual with disfigurement to see their inner beauty and give them back their voice.

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