Our Story
Our goal is to help people feel comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.
Our charity celebrates its' tenth year in 2025, and this milestone marks an important time for reflect on our story so far. Our story began with a child growing up in a severely disadvantaged environment in Australia during the 1950’s. This child experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse and became skilled at surviving. By the end of the 1960’s, the child took to the streets where it was safer than living with her abusive mother.
This ‘street kid’ survived. She was highly vigilant and learned how to find food at the back of cafés in bins, and how to keep warm in the bitterly cold winters under bridges and in alleyways. With very little education, no money, no home, no identity – no chance, life didn’t make sense to her as she dodged the welfare system. The only way she could make sense of her world was through feelings. When she connected to how scared she was, she felt relief. Feeling her pain saved her life.
However, for most people, moving towards the pain seems counterintuitive as they are used to avoiding feeling discomfort.
People are in the habit of avoiding, dissociating, numbing, distracting and denying their uncomfortable feelings. People have multiple strategies to numb their pain including alcohol, over the counter and/or illicit medication, overeating, addiction to screen time and social media, along with other unhealthy addictions and behaviours. These patterns of avoidance have led to an unhealthy world.
This serendipitous observation of moving towards and connecting to uncomfortable emotion has helped hundreds of people and saved many lives over the past twenty-five years. Some clients have been so amazed at the difference ‘feeling their pain’ made to health and wellbeing, they wanted to spread the word.
They became angel investors and created the Sharon Faye Foundation out of respect for this disadvantaged child and the difference feeling pain has made. As a registered charity, the Foundation has achieved so much since its inception.
Sharon and her colleagues were successful in publishing an inaugural academic paper in a peer reviewed journal. They delivered a public lecture on emotion and designed an applied research study in a local Western Australian primary school based on the premise that building Emotional Strength® in teachers would benefit the students. This study proved to be important in enhancing teacher job satisfaction, reducing teacher burnout, improving teacher and student engagement, and reducing student anger and anxiety. Further, teachers participating in the study observed less student aggression and violence in the playground and students appeared calmer in the classroom. The whole teaching and learning experience changed as a result of this study.
The Foundation has now evolved into the Emotion Research Institute. This is an exciting time for global research into emotion. The impact of this type of research on people, families, schools, businesses, legal and political systems is profound.
Be a part of our brave vision by investing in the Institute where there is an opportunity for you to experience a meaningful social return.
Our Values
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