Hello
I jokingly say that I’ve lived a “colorful life,” so I don’t put any more energy into the harmful and hurtful experiences that I’ve had. However, those experiences did shape me, and I am grateful for them. My life experiences only fostered the already present compassion within me and gave me skills that I continue to use for myself and enjoy passing to others.
Since childhood, I’ve questioned, “does life have to be painful?” and many times, I found the answer was “no.” There are many things that induvials, communities and countries can do to foster and nurture life. Unfortunately, I realized early on that nurturing was not encouraged in the dominant culture in the U.S. Instead, the focus of our country has been the production of money by means of breaking apart community and individuals not just on this land, but on whole other nations who the U.S. made dependent on their dept. The ideals promoted in this country serve the select few and aim to keep everyone else impoverished, fight among each other, and feel the only way we can sooth ourselves is through commercialism or numbing ourselves.
I choose to not participate in that culture as much as I can to not perpetuate these oppressive and unhelpful messages. Instead, I choose to listen, put strength towards, and incorporate into my life the messages that I feel are helpful: we all bring an invaluable presence in this world, we should always strive to do better, and keep an open mind while listening, learning, and growing through this journey called life.
This is what I will bring to you when we meet.
Professional Background and Thesis
I started my career path in social services as a volunteer at Bridgid Collins, a local advocacy center for child survivors of abuse. Soon after starting, I noticed that most of the abuse could have been prevented if the guardians of the children had support through the pain they were experiencing from their own previous traumatic events. That lead me to work with adult victims of sexual and domestic abuse at the Bellingham location of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services (DVSAS) as a Criminal Justice Advocate. I assisted victims of the above crimes understand and navigate the criminal justice system and provide compassionate support along the way. However, I still felt that I wasn’t doing enough. I needed to understand why the dominant American society was the way it was, and how abuse kept being passed from generation to generation, so I decided to go to school for it.
I received my BA in Sociology with emphasis is social justice and criminal justice reform from Western Washington University. My schooling solidified what life had already taught me: living unsheltered, substance use, and involvement in the criminal system almost all the time happen due to one another and often happen simultaneously. When we look even deeper, we find that more times than not, negative childhood experiences or traumatic experiences at any stage in one’s life trigger the above events in life.
During these events, humans adapt to survive and thrive the best they can with the conditions given. However, after coming out of a period of survival, the skills we learned that helped us then, do not transfer well to positive events or conditions that come after. The way that the promoted dominant American society can then support a person at this stage, would be to give that person the compassionate and nurturing support they should have had from the beginning and throughout their life. This, coupled with education and guidance through new conditions and learning new ways to engage in them is one way a person can learn how to thrive again.
Post graduation, I have since applied that thesis to my case management at Unity Care NW (2020-2022), street outreach and youth advocacy at Northwest Youth Services (2022), and housing and employment case management at Consistent Care (2023-2025). Throughout my career, I have been praised on my advocacy, dedication and outcomes for my clients by both fellow staff and by the client's I've served. Now, I hope to continue my work, but have it set within a service that breaks down the walls of oppression within our country and uplifts cultures and voices that have been suppressed.
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