“Open heart, with a backbone.” That is what is engraved on a necklace that a fellow CSTM student gave me upon my graduation in 2020 from the M.A./M.S.W. program at Boston College. This is what we would say to one another when discussing the combination of the Masters in Social Work and Masters in Theology and Ministry degrees that I was pursuing for three years. Both schools have students, professors, and staff with generous spirits and clinical acumen. Getting to spend so much time in both schools fused together for me these two equally important parts of clinical and ministerial work. The dual degree program taught me that you have to remain open to mystery and lead with empathy, while at the same time having the skills and abilities to guide and lead people with care. This combination has been invaluable to me since graduating and beginning my career as a social worker specializing in grief and trauma.
I graduated the M.A./M.S.W. program in 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. I began my career in hospice, working as a bereavement counselor for Good Shepherd Community Care in Newton, MA. In 2021, my husband’s job brought us to Chicago, Illinois, where I started at a group private practice specializing in grief, loss, chronic illness, and terminal illness. This past summer, I decided to open my own individual private practice, which is what I spend most of my time on now, in addition to being a consultant with the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.
In working with grieving and traumatized people, you must be able to sit with the weight of the stories being shared with you, and you have to be able to guide and accompany the person in front of you into a new way of being. This work is hard, but because I had the models for how to hold space in meaningful ways in my professors, mentors, and peers within the dual degree program, I felt well prepared to step into the work and continue to grow and change with it. I’ve learned that you can’t learn how to be an effective social worker or minister through reading and conversation alone – you have to have it modeled for you and witness the transformation that can occur when someone’s presence makes you feel truly seen and known. I was lucky enough to have so many relationships within the CSTM and the SSW that showed me that kind of respect and care, so that I could offer it to my own clients and colleagues.
My time at the School of Theology and Ministry and the School of Social Work has informed the way that I practice in so many ways. The CSTM gave me the ability to sit with mystery and pain inthe ways that are necessary when supporting grieving people. The SSW offered me the clinical training and skills to be able to conceptualize the larger picture of what people are going through and to support their mental health in evidence-based ways. The fusion of the two degrees, along with the relationships that I formed within both programs, have shaped my life and career in unimaginable ways. I hope that in the future I can give back to the field what these programs and people have given me, and help to form more social workers that live by the same philosophy – open heart, with a backbone.