Hazel Zetino, LMFT, graduated from the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program in 2016. She spoke with the Wright Institute's Dalton Green about her career since graduating, the non-profit she founded recently, and how being a student mentor set her up for future leadership roles.
Dalton Green (DG): Where have you been working since you graduated in 2016?
"I think that most of us who are drawn to this field simply want to help people, and do good work for society. That ethos certainly reflects how I want to live my life."
Midway through his second and final year of the Counseling Psychology program, Adam Brown came to the Wright Institute in 2019 after nearly a decade working as a journalist in the diabetes field. Brown, who has lived with Type 1 Diabetes since he was 12 years old, has a passion for helping others who also live with the condition.
"I've always had a love of helping people cope with this chronic disease," Brown says. With an interest in the field of psychology and some encouragement from a few diabetes psychologists he knew, he decided to make a change and pursue a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology. When looking into programs in the Bay Area, the Wright Institute stood out as a good fit.
On January 22nd, the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program core faculty hosted "Our relationship with white supremacy: Faculty perspectives from target and non-target membership," a webinar in which faculty shared their experiences with white supremacy with Counseling Psychology program students. Faculty panelists discussed their own experiences with multicultural/diversity courses that they took in their graduate careers, and shared what they learned, what they didn't, and how they continue to engage knowledge, skills and advocacy related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The event was the first in a three-part series; in the following parts, faculty members will discuss the concept of allyship and , and talk with students about the themes of the series.
This month, Wright Institute Clinical Psychology student Courtney Miller was awarded the 2020 Alameda County Psychological Association (ACPA) Graduate Student Dissertation Award for her dissertation, 鈥淏ridging the Gap Between the Altar and the Therapist鈥檚 Office.鈥� 鈥淚 am honored to receive the 2020 ACPA Graduate Student Dissertation Award,鈥� says Miller, 鈥渁nd I am thrilled to be able to use this award to further my research to impact my community.鈥�
Miller鈥檚 study, 鈥淏ridging the Gap Between the Altar and the Therapist鈥檚 Office: A Needs Analysis for a Church-Based Mental Health Program from the Perspective of Pastors and Afican American Young Adult Congregants,鈥� was designed to assess the attitudes, preferences, experiences, and needs for a church-based mental health program.
When held its first session in February of 2019, founders , and , were excited to hold in-person sessions with groups of adolescents navigating issues in their lives. After a successful first year, Wright Institute Clinical Psychology Program graduates Greene (class of 2017) and Moss (class of 2016), alongside their former mentors and have had to change their strategy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淚 feel so proud of the contributions I can make to help people reach their goals or create a more meaningful life,鈥� says Paige Pires de Almeida, LMFT. 鈥淚 feel so much gratitude that I鈥檓 able to do work that I love.鈥�
A 2015 graduate of the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology program, Pires de Almeida has spent the past seven years in the mental health field following careers in both the legal industry and technology/video game industry. This summer, she became an adjunct professor at the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology program, and also teaches at Dominican University鈥檚 Counseling Psychology program.
A few weeks before her graduation from the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program, Allie Jackson is reflecting on her past two years while looking ahead to her career as a clinician. "I don't know if it's possible for a student to finish this program as the same person they were when they started," she says. "I feel like I've grown immensely in the past two years."
A Southern California native, Jackson studied Psychology and Spanish at . She applied her studies into on-campus experience in the . "That experience with research was one of the primary reasons why I wanted to go into psychology," she says.
Students from the Wright Institute Clinical Psychology Program's ReModel Minority Group collaborated with various community members to create a message of Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) mental health awareness. The students spoke alongside contributors from , the , and other community members. Third-year student and ReModel Minority member Shiyu Zhang, who served as a co-chair for CHI, helped to organize the efforts.
Wright Institute Clinical Psychology Program alum and president , participated in a panel hosted by the on Friday, July 24. The conversation, entitled was hosted by Congresswoman , and discussed mental health issues facing the Black community brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wright Institute Clinic has launched the COVID-19 support line. The support line is offering eight free counseling sessions via video conferencing or telephone for those affected most by the pandemic - healthcare providers, caregivers, parents, food services personnel, and more.
The line is staffed by Wright Institute Clinical staff as well as Wright Institute students currently completing practicum training. As some practicum sites have temporarily closed or limited their services, some students have had fewer opportunities to gain the hours of clinical experience that are required to pursue licensure after graduation. Working on the COVID-19 support line enables them to gain that experience while helping especially impacted and vulnerable populations. Student clinicians have already been assigned clients, and services have begun.
