My Social Work Journey
I grew up working with older adults as a candy striper in hospitals while volunteering many hours in middle school and High School at nursing homes and hospitals. While completing my Bachelors Degree in Psychology and Minor in Gerontology interning at St. Joseph’s hospital in Orange County, I learned that becoming a MSW was the pathway forward to my career of choice.
During my 2 year Master’s program I interned at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Anaheim both in the hospital and in a senior care program. My second internship included the inpatient and outpatient psychiatric units at the Long Beach VA. I received my Masters of Social Work degree in May of 1997 and started my now 28 year career as a professional social worker.
Developing A Love for Medical Social Work
After graduate school I spent 2 years at a Long Term Acute Care hospital learning everything I ever wanted to know about hospital social work, complex medical care, ventilator dependence, medication resistant infections, and the reality that much of my work involved preparing families for end of life decisions.
I transferred to Huntington Memorial Hospital as a cardiothoracic and respiratory unit social worker and moonlighted in the ER as a level 1 trauma social worker, managing psychiatric assessments and a lot of grief and loss with devastating medical trauma.
In fact one role at this hospital was for the social workers to go to the morgue with a CNA and help take dead bodies out of the freezer, place them in a family viewing room, and then sit with the grieving family while they saw their deceased loved one. Grad school didn’t prepare me for that one.
After completing my 3000 hours of clinical work under supervision and passing my LCSW oral exam, I was finally at the top of my field. I later transitioned to a position at the same hospital in Elder Care and Geriatric Care Management.
In 2001 I became the Social Work Manager of Henry Mayo Level II Trauma Hospital’s Social Work Department. I implemented strategies and heledp transform how social work was seen by physicians, creating a space where social workers got to do clinical work in the acute medical setting, rather than just passing out resources. Social Workers became an integral part of that hospital system.
Moving on Up
In 2004 we moved to northern California requiring yet another transition in my career. I spent 2 years in women’s health working with substance abusing pregnant mom’s so that they had a chance to have a healthy pregnancy, and keep their child at delivery. Yet I loved the medical side and jumped on the opportunity when a position opened to be the Sacramento Neuro Intensive Care/Medical Intensive Care Social Worker, and quickly learned everything I could about brain injury, ruptured brain aneurysms, brain cancer, and a myriad of any other Medical conditions that people would survive or die from.
My role was to work with the families and to help them cope with the medical information, facilitate family discussions and collaborate with organ donation representatives when brain death was diagnosed. I spent 9 years in that ICU and worked tirelessly to create yet again, the respect and authority that professional social workers were worthy of within a medical setting.
When a new program was created that required innovation and creativity, I moved with many incredible clinicians to a program designed to help keep individuals out of unnecessary ER visits by providing access to the resources that would otherwise cause them to come to the ER for necessary intervention. Yet this program was taxing on me and definitely was more macro focused and not the clinical work that I loved, so I moved into another position in Palliative Care and became an integral part of the team that helped with discussions and prepared families for the reality of medical choices, and the impact those decisions had on their loved one’s quality of life.
Private Practice
While working in Palliative Care, I cut down to 32 hours and began dreaming about my private practice that I would one day have. I trained in Brené Brown’s Daring Way Curriculum in 2017 and got keys to my office in Folsom California. I worked days, saw clients at night, and spent tireless hours creating my website and writing copy for what is now Authentic Gains. I needed more availability to build my practice so I moved to a Hospice social work position at 24 hours/week and again, worked long days building my practice until one day in February of 2018 I left the corporate world and ventured completely into private practice.
It’s hard to believe that I have created the practice that I have today. Many people didn’t believe I could do it. Believe me, I had my own doubts. Yet the perseverance of a dream and the desire to continue to help others was always my social work heart. Learning and becoming more so I can help others has always been a part of who I am. In 2019 I learned EMDR, got certified in the modality in 2020, and now am a consultant and trainer. I most recently learned Attachment Focused EMDR Trauma Therapy for Adults and will continue to become certified in this specialty as well. I look forward to doing more Attachment Focused EMDR Intensives this year.
Social Work Values
This year’s Social Work month theme is Compassion + Action. The six core values that drive my profession and ethics are service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. Today I continue to speak out, stand behind, and align with those who are marginalized and need people to advocate for them, be their voice, and fight the fight for their freedom, liberty, and justice. Please join me in celebrating a profession that sees humanity and works every day for change! Hug a social worker today.