Behind Feli Sebastian’s accomplishments is a story of guidance – both her calling to guide others and her own journey in faith and family.
Sebastian has written books, founded a recovery program and her own counseling practice, and served as an advocate for women.
Now, she's recognized as a History Maker by the McLean County Museum of History. Sebastian will be honored at the History Makers Gala on June 17.
But almost none of that happened in Bloomington. When she completed her doctoral dissertation in 1989, she had one job offer here and another in Boston.
“I was a little bit leaning to Boston, the lure of a city, big city and all that but [my advisor], he said to me, ‘You know, Feli, I know Boston will give you a higher pay, but also the standard of living is high, very high,’” she said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
So, Sebastian went home and she prayed on it. She felt like the answer was Bloomington, and she’s never regretted it.
“The community is welcoming, and also I had room to grow and I was able to use my experience and my skills in helping the community,” she said. “And also, the other thing that was really very helpful for me was I had mentors and friends and spiritual directors who really helped me along the way. No regrets.”
A journey across oceans
As the second oldest of 10 siblings and a young girl in the Philippines, Sebastian was quickly expected to help contribute to the family. That started with her mother taking her and her siblings to sell patis, a fermented fish sauce.
“And my younger brother and I would go door to door and sell them, and so at a very young age I learned by practice the value of money and service to my family and the rest of my siblings,” she said.
At the same time, Sebastian’s parents put a lot of effort behind their children getting the best education they could. She got the chance to attend a prestigious university in Manila.
After working for a few years at a grade school, Sebastian quickly followed her sister to the United States after she moved in 1981, just one year later.
“And then she was so lonely and wanted to go back home, and my dad said, ‘No, it’s hard to get a visa. I will send your older sister to keep you company,’” she said. “So, after a month, I was here, my sister said, ‘Let’s try and extend your visa.’ And so, we did that.”
But Sebastian’s faith kept pulling at her. She wanted to decide whether or not her life’s calling was to be a nun or pursue a career.
That led her to the Franciscan Sisters’ Convent in Sylvania, Ohio.
“So, I lived with them for two years all the time discerning whether this is the way I would like to live my life, but towards the end I realized it wasn’t, and so I left, but it was hard leaving them because they were my first family here in the States,” Sebastian said. “I felt I needed a bad reason why I should leave them, or something that they did wrong towards me, or I did towards them, but they helped me a whole lot."
With her life once again out in front of her with choices, Sebastian found her way to her next chapter a life – counseling.
A guide and counselor
When she completed her dissertation in 1989 in Ohio, Feli made the choice between her job offers and started work at BroMenn Hospital, now Carle BroMenn.
She said flexible hours helped her decompress in a demanding work environment.
“Where people really rely on your help, on being able to be helped. Many of them have really deep-seated problems, and they’re coming only in their 30s or even late 40s and 50s addressing problems that have been in their lives for many years," she said.
“My challenges also in counseling was working with children.”
Sebastian recalled a great demand for children’s counseling at her job, many who were dealing with grief for the first time or divorcing parents. Kids weren’t too difficult, she said, but teenagers were another beast entirely.
“They didn’t want to be there, and they would really make you know that they don’t like it to be talking about [it]," said Sebastian.
It’s really mom’s problem, or dad’s got the problem, so go talk to them, she remembered teenagers saying.
“When you work one on one with individuals, you only work with one person, but when you work with children and teenagers, you have to involve the whole family, so you really have to address the family dynamics,” she said.
Part of the joy of working with teenagers was Feli understood well how to deal with a large family herself.
She worked at Carle for many years, but left in 1997 to open her own practice, again helping counsel many who needed it. After 14 years of that, she accomplished her vision of a recovery transition house for formerly incarcerated women.
Labyrinth House
A part of the YWCA of McLean County, Labyrinth Reentry Services was pioneered by Sebastian first as Labyrinth House.
Now, it is a program aimed at helping men and women in McLean County avoid recidivism through housing and job assistance.
“The focus was not really to help formerly incarcerated women,” she said. “When I was a counselor, I had women who were addicted to all kinds of substances, and I had a co-worker at the time, Sister Eileen, and when she left the area, she founded a home for women who were addicted … in Tennessee.”
So, Sebastian got the idea of starting something similar at home. Originally her intent was to help single, homeless women suffering from addiction. She had not considered the formerly incarcerated because at the time she was afraid of them because of warnings from her parents as a child.
“I started the idea in 2004, and so for four years until 2008 I had worked with the [Normal Town] Council and work also with several in the community, looking for a house for these women, but every place I went, the door is closed,” she said.
As she had always done in times of need, Sebastian prayed on finding help in her efforts. She said the answer was Mary Campbell, a former co-worker at BroMenn, joining the team. Campbell and her husband were experienced house flippers.
Also at the time, Sebastian was made aware of a group of formerly incarcerated women in west Bloomington who needed housing. Then the project came to life in 2011.
“I would say [Labyrinth] would be the highlight of my life since I came to Bloomington,” said Sebastian. “I thought that the community would not help us because I was coming from the presumption or assumption that I had on myself, these women made mistakes, they have to have to pay for their wrongdoings, but I was proven wrong.”
Sebastian said in the two years they spent renovating two houses in Bloomington, groups from churches and universities to families and individuals came to volunteer their time.
Author and advocate
Sebastian was inspired by the work of Labyrinth to write a book, Broken and Beloved: A Memoir of Grit, Perseverance and an Unstoppable Faith.
“It is about the women and the organization [Labyrinth], and how we developed it and became really a very significant organization to help this population,” she said.
Sebastian said had she known at the beginning that she would help formerly incarcerated women, she most likely would not have pursued the project, but she said the Lord makes things happen.
Her book was published in 2020 and the next year in 2021 she co-founded another project: ExtraOrdinary Women Project BN. It honors unsung women in the Twin Cities.
“This is the third organization I have founded with other women. I like this really very much, because we are focusing on ordinary women who are doing extraordinary things,” said Sebastian.
“We are creating an activity book for kids where the lives of these honorees are featured, so that it will become a source of hope and inspiration for them.”
Sebastian said some of the quarterly honorees have been a mother of a fallen soldier, a woman who was formerly homeless and many more. They’ve honored 18 women in Bloomington-Normal since its start.
“These women are really recognized. We are not after degrees or titles, but we are after the character and personality of these women and how they were able to give back to the community,” she said.
It is another project created by Sebastian in the mission to help women feel seen and heard in their communities.
When asked why she chose to continue even more projects after her retirement and numerous other honors and awards, Sebastian said being active in a community brings her joy.
“I love to be with people and I love to be able to help them if they need anything that I can provide, so I would also say that service was part of my atmosphere in my family that I grew up with,” she said.
“Many times, I have said it to my husband, I’m cutting down on hours, I said I’m ready to fully retire, but I know I cannot just sit around.”
Sebastian, along with the other honorees, will be formally recognized at the museum’s June 17 gala as a McLean County History Maker.
