The Job of Healing

 For Joel Siebentritt, the timing and the job just came together.

As a licensed clinical social worker, he has worked as a grief counselor in a hospice setting, and in private practice He’s developed psychosocial support programs for chronically ill patients in a physician’s private practice. He’s worked as a social worker in a public school system, and as a hospice bereavement coordinator.

So it seemed serendipitous when, earlier this year, the job came open for which he seemed to be preparing his whole life. He applied, and was chosen to be the director of the Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support, a patient-support and education center on the campus of

“It seemed like it was a really good fit,” says Siebentritt. “I was pleased.”

The Loran Smith Center provides cancer patients and their families with support, information and guidance as they navigate through the unfamiliar territory cancer diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. There are classes on nutrition, writing, wig styling, yoga and painting, as well as sessions featuring healing touch, Reiki and Tai Chi. 

All classes are free. People come from across Northeast Georgia to take advantage of the services and programs at the Loran Smith Center. They learn as much as they want to know about their particular type of cancer, how to weather it and how to help their families deal with their life-threatening disease.

Later this week, Siebentritt says, people will start using the spacious Griffin-DuBose Healing Lodge, a brand new facility with a hunting lodge design next door to the Loran Smith Center. The lodge was paid for through private donations.

It looks as though it would fit easily in the mountains, but it seems at home on Talmadge Avenue, too. It features a formal dining room, a large, open living room, a full kitchen and a sunroom, as well as porches and numerous smaller rooms for consultation sessions and all of the other activities the center offers. 

The Griffin-DuBose Healing Lodge will be used by other hospital and community programs as well, including programs offered by the Mind-Body Institute. The facility is named in honor of Athens attorney Buck Griffin and physician Boling DuBose.

“We’re just so grateful to the community for this building,” said Siebentritt.  “People were incredibly generous.”