Education + Training

I graduated with my Master of Social Work from the University of New England as a Care for the Underserved Pathways AHEC Scholar with an Interprofessional Education Honors Distinction (to view my portfolio, please click here). I completed my practicums at Gateway Community Services with a focus on Community Health Outreach and at Maine Medical Center on the Palliative Medicine team, respectively.

Throughout my life and educational training, I often thought about how different cultures considered access to care. For example, there is no word for “mental illness” in Vietnamese, all we have is “bệnh tâm thần,” which translates to madness and carries shame. I want to give others more through destigmatization with clients empowering them to seek healing and support. Nationally, and in Maine, there is not enough representation of people of color in mental health [less than 5% nationally practicing].

I am a doctoral student and research associate in Human Development and Learning at Lesley University, interested in understanding how to support inclusive, equitable, and trauma-sensitive learning environments for all individuals. 

My clinical passions include working with historically marginalized communities here in my home state of Maine (especially as Maine is the least racially and ethnically diverse state in our country [94.2% white] per the 2022 Census, with a Diversity Index [DI] of 18.5% compared to overall national DI of 62%; this metric is used to measure the probability that any two people selected randomly will be from a different race/ ethnicity). 

From a practice standpoint, I work collaboratively from a person-centered outlook, meaning I believe in the healing power of the therapeutic relationship. We deserve to be unconditionally valued, as well as understood in the context of the systems that impact us. If you are curious about the theory side— I incorporate the following in my consideration of the work with each individual's respective needs:  

• Attachment Theory (Bowlby), 

• as well as Internal Family Systems (Bowen),

• and Polyvagal Theory (Porges), 

as I believe our relationships and how we engage within them shape who we are, the meanings we create, and our outlooks on life.