HE HELPERS The Faces of the Helpers
Ayodeji Ojo ’26 (Master of Social Work) plans to become a clinical therapist and work with people who have mental health issues. She is currently working full-time as a direct support professional for children with special needs and is a mother of two. She has always found her jobs helping children and adults with special needs to be quite rewarding. “You’re helping somebody who cannot pay you back,” said Ojo. “I want to understand holistically, not just on the surface. You can’t remove trauma from part of their story because that’s what has brought them to where they are.” Eden Parsons ’25 (Mental Health Counseling) returned to school when she realized she needed greater perspective and training than her job as a behavioral analyst allowed. By the time you read this, she hopes to be working as a counselor with people with addictions or children. She believes the training is beneficial to anyone who is working with other people—whether a teacher, nurse, or police officer—who should recognize that anger and aggressive behaviors may not be a result of being in the wrong but the body’s response to believing they are in danger and reacting defensively. “Being trauma-informed makes you a better counselor, but it also makes you a better human being,” said Parsons. “It gives you the foundation for understanding others and practicing empathy. If more people had this knowledge, we’d have a society that is more united, where people aren’t judged for their reactions but understood for their experiences.” Ally Poblete ’28 (PsyD) is pursuing her doctorate so that she can focus on recovery work, especially for people with serious mental health issues like schizophrenia because they are so misunderstood. Her coursework has already helped her as she leads group sessions and does individual counseling work in her ongoing clinical experiences at the Sandra Eskenazi Mental Health Center. During a recent session, she used grounding exercises she had just learned about in class to help a client with an extensive trauma history who was feeling distressed. “It was really cool and rewarding to have just learned about that and put it into practice,” said Poblete. “Most of my clients will likely have gone through or are going through trauma, so it’s really beneficial and important to be able to be a better mental health provider for them.”
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MAGAZINE // SPRING 2025
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