ABOUT
About Janet Cheney
BACKGROUND
Janet Cheney is a recovering basket case. She is also a woman of faith, an author, teacher, mentor, abuse survivor, and friend.
At 13 months she was “adopted” by her biological mother’s first cousin and his wife, at the behest of their grandmother. Arranged family adoptions were common when a mother had a “love” affair. Her new mother, however, only agreed to the arrangement out of obligation to her husband. The resentment festered and Janet’s growing up years became a toxic landscape with emotional and verbal abuse, lies, betrayal, cruelty, and rejection. She never knew the truth about her own background, no hint of extended family, until, at the age of 51, she found her birth mother.
But there was a saving grace in her first ten years of life: the adopted father’s grandmother, Grandy. Janet spent almost every weekend of her life at Grandy’s house. She was loving, nonjudgmental, and active in her church. She taught that Jesus is our best friend and God is our loving Father.
ESCAPE
Janet met her Vietnam vet husband at age 18, when they were in college together. He was muscular from his stint in the Marine Corps, and not bad on the eyes either. But the main attraction was that later he stood up to her mother, something not even the adopted father would do. In truth, Janet married to run away from home. When they married in 1971, they were the only married couple in their social group of hippies. It was a hippie romp for nine months until they were expecting their first child.
Not wanting to raise a child in a hippy environment, her husband quit his substance abuse, got active in his childhood church, and Janet joined him, baptized at six months pregnant in 1972. Bringing a child into the world was awesome; but the downside was her vet husband no longer self-medicated and his PTSD became a full-blown misery, complete with violence and sexual and verbal abuse. After the birth of five children and the death of their only daughter in 1979, a divorce was inevitable. It came in 1980.
Rough times still came with a date rape six months later, which resulted in pregnancy and a child given up for adoption in 1981. The upside was that this newborn son went to a Christian home that couldn’t have children of their own.
Reeling from the weight of all the loss, tragedy, trauma, and death of her dreams, Janet ate. She had developed an eating disorder at age 10 as a result of being required to “stuff” her grief when her Grandy died that year. After those three years of tragic experiences, she returned to compulsive overeating.
HEALING
By the time she found an eating disorder therapist, she weighed 250 pounds with a five-foot-five frame. The therapist had a background with her own eating disorder rooted in family trauma, so she knew how to help Janet find her way. The therapist became a surrogate mother for six years, teaching Janet life tools and helping her heal her borderline personality disorder.
Fast forward to 2022 and the recent death of her sweetheart and husband, Janet refocused her energies on coaching with a strong desire and purpose to help others. She wants you to know that:
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You can overcome life trauma
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Your life can be full of positive, uplifting experiences, and, ultimately,
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We can all gain life tools and methods for managing life challenges, including eating disorders.
EXPERIENCE
Janet has been a “shoulder to lean on” and a counselor to friends and family for decades. Her unique background imbues her with deep compassion, common sense pragmatism, and bright hope. A confirmed optimist, she looks for the good in others and experiences.
"I first met Janet in one of my painting classes years ago. I could see this woman was not ordinary, as she learned how to paint landscapes, I came to know her as a person. Some people just glow, and as she would talk about her past and where she was in her life now, I would think to myself: "Thank God for people like her that make this world a better place!" I was not surprised to find out she offers counseling to those in need, because she would be the most authentic coach you could find."
-- Jon McNaughton International Artist
To be with Janet Cheney is invigorating. She is an intelligent woman with courage and sees
the world filled with possibilities.
Emma Lu Draper M.Ed.