Blog Posts

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Lazear Charter Academy

3/2/2021

This week, we are highlighting our partnership with Lazear Charter Academy, a school devoted to “being the change you want to see!”

Lazear Charter Academy is in the Fruitvale neighborhood in East Oakland and serves grades Transitional Kindergarten – 8th. Lazear provides rigorous instruction and offers an extraordinary Science, Technology, Art, Engineering and Math (STEAM) program. The Lazear community is driven by love and connection while focused on developing the whole person through fostering students, their families, and school staff. Lazear has strived to develop a vigorous multi-tiered system which supports students growing academically, socially, and emotionally. This model promotes lifelong learners who develop critical thinking skills, create modern results to intricate challenges, and express ideas assertively.

The world has been forced to modify learning practices and community building for the past 11 months, and the Lazear community has established innovative ways to maintain connection. Through teamwork and collaboration, the Wildcat Family provides pertinent and profound ways to stay connected during Distance Learning. The Wildcats have been successful in maintaining community through:

Fun Friday: Socializing opportunities for peer-to-peer interactions. Each week students can play games, watch a movie, or hangout, with each teacher hosting a different room.
Gratitude Challenge: Students and staff wrote sincere and thoughtful letters of appreciation to a Lazear staff member.
Santa Adoption: Lazear staff volunteered to be a “Santa” to a student in need by purchasing a gift, labeling it, and dropping it off to the school.
Virtual Movie Night: Students wore their pajamas at the end of spirit week to watch a movie together.

Collective Care Friday: Historically, many of the joys of the work took place in the small moments of adult connection sharing a funny student moment, passing each other on the way to fill a water bottle, or sharing a quick meal during lunch time in the lounge. Lazear thrives on connection; connecting with each other is an important way to take care of ourselves and each other. The onsite Clinicians hold a loosely facilitated virtual space once a month to help replace those moments the Wildcats are missing from the on-campus school day. It is a space to share a funny story, eat lunch, talk, or just see some familiar faces.
Career Day: Student Council planned and organized a career day for 5th - 8th graders on March 4th. Overall, students are interested in various careers, and Lazear is supporting them to explore their interest by arranging a Zoom Career Day so the students get the opportunity to learn from amazing speakers and gain insight about their career experiences.
Community Meetings: Daily small group connection time with an adult to start each day, look at the schedule, assignments, and current events. This is an opportunity to build community with peers and staff, learn tech skills, hear school wide updates, and have some fun to start the morning.

Monthly Material Distribution: Each month, school staff put together baggies of materials for all grades that include printed work, school supplies schedules, and anything personalized for a student or family. Teachers are given the opportunity to come pass out bags on distribution day to have the chance to see kids and families briefly in person. The school also usually has a theme, like dress up and candy pass out for Halloween, or a Valentines in each baggie for February.
Spirit Week: To increase student engagement, Lazear set up a virtual spirit week where they encouraged all students (TK-8th) to dress up. The Student Council wanted to focus on student’s participation, so they incentivized the participation of each student by giving a raffle ticket each day a student dressed up. Also, Lazear arranged a movie night for the entire school at the end of spirit week.

Dedicated School Personnel: Lazear recognizes the challenges of distant learning. To support student’s academic participation, teachers creatively think of ways to encourage students to meet goals. For example, Ms. Tombs pied herself because her 4th grade students met their Zearn goal of 60%. Also, Ms. Friedman dyed her hair and eyebrows blue because the entire 3rd/4th graders met their Zearn goal. Lastly, teachers ensure that students have the materials they need to be successful. For example, one of our teachers, Ms. A, dropped off a desk to a 4th grade student to make sure that he has a place within his home where he can focus on his schooling.
MTSS team hike/retreat: Team building and connection outdoors!

Blog Post Written By: Devina Brooks, Behavior Intervention Specialist

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Meeting Each of Us Where We Are, Unconditionally

3/2/2021

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Seneca has always prided itself on providing Unconditional Care to children and families to assist them with various challenges and provide resources to thrive in daily living. However, let's be honest, this pandemic has made our usual roles even MORE challenging than before.

With the Unconditional Care model in mind, our team at Prescott Elementary and Seneca Oakland Alameda Public Schools (SOAPS) have actively brainstormed creative ways to engage families to ensure they receive adequate forms of support and resources no matter the circumstances. We’ve provided portable desks, academic supplies and posters to families to assist them in creating a designated space, within the home, where the student can access their education. To promote engagement, we’ve incorporated an incentive wheel in which students are surprised with incentives, at random times during instruction, when they display positive engagement. Some of the incentives include a 10-minute game break, homework pass, and extra picks at the student store or “grab bag”. We aim to provide a fun and structured environment for the students, while also holding them accountable with their expectations.

Bet you thought positive reinforcement just worked on students? Nope, it works with parents/caregivers as well. As a result, we’ve included families into student contracts and incentives so parents/caregivers can be included in the process. In addition, we’ve worked to communicate student improvements and successes, instead of challenges majority of the time, and to acknowledge family members for providing support because they deserve recognition as well.

I hope I’ve been able to normalize the challenges we’ve all been facing and to provide ideas you may not have used yet or just inspire you to keep trying! We are all doing our best during this unprecedented time, so while we are providing love and compassion to our clients, don’t forget to love yourself as well. #SelfCare

Blog Post Written By: Breanna Donaldson, Clinical Counseling Associate

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Humanizing & Decolonizing our Complexities – Therapists are People Too

2/23/2021

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The past 12 months have been rough for most people. While certainly not inherently worse, there have been unique challenges for those of us working as therapists. We have weathered the global COVID-19 pandemic and its associated personal, social, and political impacts right alongside the young people we work with and their families.

We have been isolated and overwhelmed, faced unthinkable loss both in our families and in our communities, as well as on a global scale, and we have been subjected to one political firestorm after another. On top of that we had to learn zoom. Many of us have risen with hope as part of the movement for Black lives -- and have also found ourselves heartbroken and exhausted as structural and interpersonal race-based violence continues to proliferate. Some of us did all of this with our children attending online school right beside us, never getting a break from being on duty or, conversely, in total isolation, without having the experience of in-person connection that usually fills us up and keeps us going.

Our beautiful, flawed, resilient, and precarious human-ness has been on full display, and given the limitations of the COVID lifestyle, there’s not a lot we can do about that. It has affected each of us differently given our own identities, family structures, geographical and social locations. One thing is for certain: our common humanity is more pronounced than ever in our work.

In learning to live with what is becoming ‘COVID normal,’ I sit with questions about what it means to be a therapist and balance my humanity with the service I am offering to others. Consider this illustration of a therapist’s office, with a 2020/2021 twist. Simply drawn, the room is immediately familiar: the classic therapy couch, chair, framed degrees on the wall, and a box of tissues on the table. But the therapist’s chair is empty, and both the therapist and client are on the couch, sitting close together, facial expressions somewhere in the vicinity of bewildered. The therapist’s pen and clipboard are strewn on the floor.

This year more than ever, it may be true that we are ‘on the couch’ with our clients. As we live through so many tragedies and painful changes side by side, we are all simply doing our best with the tools we have at any given moment. There is healing in joining, and perhaps this joining is integral to the deconstruction of the western, white supremist ideologies that therapy as we know it was built on. These frameworks serve to maintain the veil of separation between therapist and client, upholding the false notion that one person in the room is an expert, and the other, a problem.

As therapists in training, we are taught about boundaries, professionalism, and keeping our selfhood out of the therapeutic relationship. Do not talk about yourself. You are a blank slate. Do not burden the client with your issues. Keep your messy humanity out of the work. Of course, this has value in terms of cultivating a space where the client can be the focus of the attention and receive necessary support, rather than be in a position of feeling beholden to the needs of the therapist. That being said, the antiquated notion of the therapist sitting in silence -- quietly diagnosing, holding knowledge and power, showing no vulnerabilities -- is deeply rooted in the othering that is inherent to the western and white supremist ideologies that the field of psychotherapy was built on. Going back to the illustration for a moment, it is important to note that both the therapist and client are white men.

In the drawing, to be even more specific, the therapist is wearing what appear to be Sigmund Freud’s signature glasses. I imagine this was an artistic choice made by the illustrator to indicate simply and clearly the who’s who of the scene, and it is effective. However, when taking into consideration the role that medical and scientific racism has played in the creation of therapy as we know it over the past 100 years or so, this is an opportunity to reflect on and shift out of the unspoken understanding that therapy is by and for white people. As a white therapist myself, looking at this from a decolonial or liberatory lens gives us a chance to consider the alternatives. By releasing ourselves as service providers from the western and white supremist ideologies of individualism, objectification, and hierarchical relationships (which Freud exemplified) we have an opportunity to participate in healing internally and in our therapeutic relationships.

Dr. Eduardo Duran spoke on “Decolonizing Therapy and Healing the Soul Wound,” recently at the Compassion in Therapy Summit where he shared, “in a practice of therapy or a community intervention, if we bring in only a western approach, we are acting as colonizers, and basically imposing more trauma on the community,” causing more harm even as we operate with positive intentions toward healing.

So how do we make this shift as individual humans who want to heal ourselves and be better therapists at the same time?

One avenue for this will come from Seneca’s All-In Program’s upcoming 3 month long clinical training series with Dr. Jennifer Mullan, who is most widely known for her revolutionary Instagram account, @decolonizingtherapy. Through this medium as well as her role as a psychologist, consultant, trainer, and activist, her work has significantly contributed to the ongoing conversation around the importance of, as our training series is called, “Politicizing Your Practice.”

By directly acknowledging our own intersecting identities in the therapeutic relationship, actively taking an anti-racist stance and striving to dismantle white supremacy in all its forms, accepting our areas of growth, releasing perfection as an ideal, and embracing the cultural and contextual knowing of the individuals and communities we work with, we can begin the work of deconstructing the inherently oppressive elements society of as they show up in therapy, social work, and even the role of the non-profit agency itself. There is no one single way to approach this as it’s not a linear progression that starts in one place and follows a straight line to another. For each person, this journey will be different. Speaking for white therapists like myself, often the work starts with learning about how we are benefiting from and upholding white supremacy in our daily lives. Everyone has their own path, but nobody is alone on this journey.

In doing this work, as we ‘sit on the couch’ with our clients, perhaps we can cultivate our humanity together. By starting with acknowledging our own humanity and honoring that of the people we work with. This is more than being kind or cracking a few jokes during a session to build rapport. It’s a deep and meaningful exploration of ourselves and each other, our histories shared and distinct, and a readiness to face the complexities of truly showing up as human in our relationships.

"The energy of resistance is fundamentally about claiming our humanity, our right to be fully human. This right is both for ourselves and for others. We must clearly see those forces that try to hold us down or hold us back. The inner work is about not holding ourselves down or holding ourselves back from manifesting our own highest humanity. It is about setting our souls free to sing, to shine, to soar. What song will you free your soul to sing? How can you support someone else in allowing their soul's power and beauty to shine more brightly? Let's all claim the cancellation of the captivity and enslavement of our minds and souls!” -Dr. Shelly Harrell

*Please click the underlined words to discover pages related to the topic!

Blog Post Written By: Brittany Allinger, Outpatient Clinician

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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Gabriella Charter Schools

2/23/2021

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In this week’s blog post, I’m happy to introduce our partnership with Gabriella Charter Schools, a network of two community charter schools serving the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Echo Park and Historic South Central. Gabriella Charter Schools were born out of the success of an after-school dance program, which was created in memory of the founder’s daughter who loved to dance. Inspired by the program’s success and in response to parent demand, Gabriella Charter School was opened in 2005 with a curriculum that paired rigorous academic work with daily dance classes required for all students. A second campus was opened in 2017.

Based on the success of his work at Gabriella’s Echo Park campus last year, our Behavior Interventions Coach Darrell Lane was asked to support Gabriella’s second campus this year in a part-time role. Like everyone else, we had to get creative in figuring out how to best support Gabriella’s students in the virtual world—but after some initial brainstorming, Darrell has settled into the following roles:

Meeting regularly with Gabriella’s School Counselor and Assistant Principal to partner in creating support plans for higher-need students.
Providing workshops for caregivers as part of Gabriella’s weekly Parent Academy series. January topics included Self-Care for Parents and Managing Anxiety and Stress for Students & Families.
Providing individual consultation calls to parents and caregivers struggling to meet their student’s school-related needs at home.
Coaching two teachers on engaging students, building classroom environments that are supportive of students with higher needs, and maintaining their own self-care practices.
Supporting Gabriella’s team of Instructional Aides by co-leading weekly team meetings.

We will continue to monitor and adapt these roles as the year progresses and changes continue to surface. Overall, though, we have so appreciated the passion and commitment of the Gabriella staff, and feel lucky to have found partners with whom we feel so aligned.

Blog Post Written By: Sean Murphy, Director of School Partnerships

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STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Rachel Machtinger

2/23/2021

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Name: Rachel Machtinger
Position: Bilingual Clinical Intervention Specialist
What led you to your current position? I never wanted to do a job where I was working for a company selling a product. That left me with a service-based job. I love that there are ways to make a living in the world where your job is based around being in relationship with people. Being a therapist is one of a few very cool careers where your work is entirely devoted to supporting people in the deepest way, facilitating a space in which they can identify their most important human needs and explore themselves without pretense or shame.
What inspires you to do this work? I chose to work with kids because (I totally love them, and) they don't always get offered a space where they can be their true selves, as they are often put in situations where they are told to do things or accept things and don't get a chance to figure out how they feel about it. I think giving kids a space to fully have their own, authentic experience, and have that validated by an adult that sees them in their truth, is a mitzvah.
What is an important lesson you’ve learned in this role? This year, during Shelter In Place and Distance Learning, I learned the value of being with kids in person. I will never again take for granted that a kid is present at school, even when their hood is up and they are unresponsive with their head down at their desk. Being there in body--that is huge. I also learned that even when they are logged in to Zoom class with their camera and microphone off and not responding--they still logged in, and that is also huge. There is something they are getting out of coming to school, or logging in, even if they are not saying a word or doing a single math problem. We are still offering them something that is valuable to them, just by being there consistently and being our authentic, caring selves. And they are choosing to take us up on that.
Share your life motto: My life motto is "Part of the whole," which brings to my mind the image of a vast spider web. We are all connected and impact each other. We all have a small place (in the grand scheme of things) in which we belong.

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Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Thank You, School Communities!

2/17/2021

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Wow, it's February? How did that happen?!?! That the school year is halfway over is probably just one of the many things that is hard to believe right now. Who would have thought a year ago, when we were reviewing the mid-year feedback from our schools and partners, that the work we do, the lives we live, and the world we know would be so fundamentally different today?

This time of year is traditionally used to step back and reflect on how things are going, and given the year we’ve all had, this could not be more important. Our staff have worked tirelessly to collaborate with schools and families to push the bounds of what is possible and redefine how this work is done in the virtual realm. Our UE Mid-Year Survey is conducted through the month of January and helps highlight our successes and, equally important, areas for improvement. These help us to focus our intentions through the end of the year.

Despite the challenges of connectedness and engagement during remote learning, we are excited to report participation in our survey held similar to last year’s reports: almost 90% of partner schools (so far) participated in the survey, with over 540 individual responses!

The Mid-Year Partnership Survey asks our partners how we are doing with components of the UE Model related to Culture and Climate, Direct Services and Progress Reporting. For students receiving direct services at our school sites, we asked our partners two questions:

If they found the provider(s) of these interventions to be professional and collaborative?
If the providers were knowledgeable and skillful in helping them to implement virtual classroom interventions to support students receiving this service?

This year, both questions averaged above our goal of 80% at 94% and 86% respectively! We are very excited by these positive responses; especially given the challenges this year has presented as both our staff and teachers have had to reinvent the ways that lessons are taught, and how staff-support is provided. There is a lot to celebrate here in the strength, skill, and perseverance of these teams.

Data collection and reporting continues to be a program priority this year and is no small task. Teachers, behaviorists, and clinicians have had to rethink how to capture, track and monitor progress data, working closely with students and families to rethink goals and measures that are both applicable to the virtual setting and meaningful as measures of progress. If this wasn't enough, they have also had to contend with the layers of scheduling and technological access barriers in collaborating with entire teams to share the goals being set and the progress being seen. Excitingly this is an area where, at this mid-year point, we saw an increase to 78%, up from 73% last year, and just shy of our goal for the year of at least 80%, which we are hopeful to hit in our End-of-Year Surveys!

The numbers themselves, while guiding and celebratory, don't offer the complete picture. We also ask for specific feedback and suggestions on our partnerships. In reviewing the constructive feedback this year, an interesting trend emerged: our partners want more. They want to know more about what the students are working on, they want to know more about how they can continue to collaborate as a team, they want to know more about our services and how we can continue to support staff, students, and families.

Here are some pieces of feedback we’ve received from partners:

“I would be open to check in with support staff and ways I could support the work Seneca is doing with our students.”

“One way to improve providing virtual instruction is to meet with teachers before the class to plan for when breakout rooms will happen.”

“I am not sure what I can do to help! I would like to know when a student is struggling in my class in particular so I can give more specific support.”

“Could we offer some workshops/work with parents and collaborate on that together?”

“I would love it if we could do more PD around differentiation and how to manage the different accommodations.”

“A growing number of students who could benefit from therapy at the Tier 2 or Tier 3 level. I wonder if Seneca can support our school with more Tier 2 therapy services, including students who do not have IEPs.”

While we seek and value constructive feedback, the open-ended responses were overwhelmingly positive, indicating that we are on the right track in our work to build collaborative, meaningful and supportive practices. We look forward to hearing from our partners again during our End-of-Year Partnership Survey.

While we wait, here are just a few of the incredible highlights shared from the year so far:

“Our [Seneca] counselor shows great energy when teaching a lesson to my students. The positive words he uses on his presentations, motivates students to participate in his class. Kids really like him.”

“Our clinician shares information that she can with us in order to support our students. The collaboration with her has been instrumental in order to best serve our students.”

“Seneca is always open to sharing resources to best serve our whole team and always willing and ready to thought-partner and problem solve around students.”

“I feel so lucky to have such a committed team. Distance learning is hard. I treasure the quick conversations and the newsletter information. I also appreciate the time we get sometimes during staff meetings.”

“I believe the partnership has made it possible to teach to all of my students and avoid leaving some of them behind.”

“I have had a wonderful experience building the support structure for our school site. Seneca staff have been very thorough and vigilant in making sure families are seen.”

“It's been challenging given the remote nature of everything, but I know the clinicians have done a fantastic job holding time and space for their clients. The way our students have been able to show up and engage in remote learning is a big testament to the work happening with Seneca staff. Additionally, Seneca staff have helped admin to consider how we are supporting the mental health of the staff.”

“Seneca affiliated staff have been instrumental in student socioemotional, behavioral, and academic growth. I am confident that they care deeply for our students, and I have personally learned a lot from interacting with these wonderful people.”

“Our clinicians are thoughtful, collaborative, and supportive! They truly care about the students they support and the students within our school as a whole. They show up to meetings and give helpful input, attend and provide data for IEPS, and take data to monitor the social emotional well-being of our students.”

“Our team is amazing. They are super knowledgeable and dedicated to our students. They have done an amazing job of supporting our school in the transition to online learning and continuing to support students with special needs.”

“Our Seneca Therapist does a great job working with students and families. She sends update emails to teachers and support staff so that we know how students are doing. She always wants to be integrated in family conferences, SSTs and other communication around student academic, behavioral and social progress.”

“Teachers feel more empowered and part of the school culture decisions and as a result seem to feel more ownership over the implementation of their plans.”

“The Seneca professional development sessions have allowed me to take a step back from my teaching practice and view it from a larger point of view. I appreciate the tools given to us (ex: the SCARF model) and how they encourage me to be more conscious of my lesson planning and feedback-giving. It is nice to pause and reflect on what we think we're doing well and what strategies might help us teach even better.”

And I could go on and on.............................

Blog Post Written By: Jordan Ullman, Assistant Director of Assessment and Evaluation

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Anti-Racism is More than a Social Platform. It is a Way of Life.

2/17/2021

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I wanted to share this blog post from EdWeek, in which Dr. Bettina L. Love, pioneer in Abolitionist Teaching, authors this article titled, “How To Make Anti-Racism More than Performance.” Bettina Love is a professor at the University of Georgia and has centered her work with equipping school communities the knowledge to develop anti-racist culture and climate. Here, Dr. Love highlights some of our country’s most recent endeavors around anti-racism policy, personal journeys to abolitionism, and practicing social justice. Racism is deeply embedded in the fabric of American society. Today, we are reminded far too often just how prevalent racism is in our country. To continue making improvements in our society, it takes collective effort to bring forth change. I believe education is a major component in generating social changes that will lead to a breakthrough in generational curses.

Blog Post Written By: Teneva Jackson, Student Support Assistant

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Holding Our Families Through the Pandemic

2/17/2021

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When the shelter in place started nearly a year ago, no one thought the pandemic would last this long. Our world quickly shifted to a virtual platform, and staff, students and families were forced to adapt to a new normal. Students were no longer able to attend school in person, and parents were now faced with keeping their children home full-time. In a program where much of our work is relationship-based and include tangible rewards, we were challenged to find creative and supportive ways to support our families.

One way the SOAPS Program has been able to support our families is through delivering theme-centered bags. Staff personally delivered Halloween-themed bags in October, winter break bags in December, and now will soon be delivering Valentine’s & Black History Month bags next week. The bags are filled with juice boxes, snacks, board games, crafts, and grocery gift cards. These bags are our attempt to keep some normalcy of the school routine where students may normally have classroom socials before the holiday breaks. In addition to providing some needed resources to the families, staff also have the opportunity for some socially-distance and face-to-face time with the students.

Another way SOAPS has supported our families is through providing some basic necessities for students during the pandemic. At the beginning of the school year, staff delivered bags of school supplies to each student to support them with distance learning. Our therapists also created individual therapy boxes for each client to use during their virtual sessions. We have also provided space heaters and other resources when families have been displaced or impacted economically.

Although these gestures may not solve all their struggles, they are our way of reminding families that they have not been forgotten and we are here to continue supporting them to the best of our abilities.

Blog Post Written By: Adeya Byrd, Program Director (Seneca Oakland Alameda Public Schools Program)

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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Bridges Academy

2/17/2021

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Bridges Academy is a long-standing Seneca school partnership and we’re honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with them. In this uniquely challenging school year, we’ve continued to focus our collective efforts to best serve the community’s students and families in a holistic way. We’ve also partnered more intentionally this year around supporting teacher wellness, connection, resiliency, and joy.

Obviously, maintaining satisfying connection with colleagues has been particularly difficult during this ongoing pandemic. The Bridges Wellness Committee coordinates many virtual events that allow staff to build and deepen their supportive relationships as a professional community. In a recent professional development session collaboratively designed and delivered by Seneca and Bridges leadership, we focused on Cultivating Resilience and Self-Care. During the training, staff had time to share with each other practices they were utilizing (or wanting to increase) in order to maintain as much vitality and joy as possible in this difficult time. The training culminated with a lengthy Appreciations session, where staff had the time and space to reflect on the positive impacts their colleagues had on students, families, and each other.

Dr. Bettina Love delivered a powerful keynote address, Q&A session, and call to action in December, sharing practices and resources from her Abolitionist Teaching Network. During that training, Seneca Clinician Jesse Wiltey shared a link to Melanated Social Work, a collective that he co-founded with three colleagues. Since learning about the collective, I’ve deeply appreciated their inspiring and illuminating Instagram posts and podcasts. I recommend everyone checks out their resources, follows, and supports their work.

Blog Post Written By: Jason Keppe, Director of School Partnerships

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STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Justina Wu

2/17/2021

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Name: Justina Wu
Position: Unconditional Education Coach
What led you to your current position? During my time as a Mental Health Counselor at an NPS (Building Blocks) and public education, I was a part of teams that collaboratively worked together to create systems/routines and focused on building relationships with students that resulted in tremendous growth in our students. At the same time, I observed that general education staff were in need of support for students who mainstreamed into their classrooms. There were also misconceptions about our i-CEC classrooms, and how staff and the community identified these students. With both experiences, I desired to do more to not only support our i-CEC classrooms further, but to also support the inclusion of our i-CEC students and to build a positive school-wide culture and climate.
What inspires you to do this work? What drew me to join Seneca is the crucial work we do with students who have experienced trauma, institutional systemic barriers, and our agency's value of providing unconditional care. The kids are my "why" and continue to inspire me with the resilience they show daily.
What is an important lesson you’ve learned in this role? This work is relational. It's very difficult to be successful in this work without trusting relationships. We all need feedback and guidance to grow, for both adults and students, but we will never be able to receive and act on it if there is no trust established which takes our walls and defenses down.
Share your life motto: My life motto is that everyone just needs a place or a person where they truly feel seen, heard, and belong. The world would be a different place if that were true. I desire to create spaces where people can experience it.