My Philosophy

Mental Health Advocacy

Mental Health has been a part of my life for a while.  Growing up with physicians as parents, including one being a psychiatrist, embracing my feelings and how I understand others has been an aspect I can touch on.  However, throughout my life I have experienced so much whether that's true personal life events or teaching others the importance of mental health, to understand that mental health advocacy is extremely imperative in our day.  Learning more about mental health has made me realize that I was born to help others. My need to help others, specifically in regards to mental health occurred when I first realized how mental health affects my own life and family members life’s.  After tragic event my need to want to promote more knowledge on the topic has spiked. During an internship at Riverwoods Behavioral Health in Riverwoods, GA, I had the opportunity to shadow the discharge planner and a few therapist in the adolescent unit of a residency mental hospital.  This is where children spent about three to five days in the facility until discharged and my job was to find a place for them to get follow up resources. In addition, I got to see first hand how mental health kicks in at such young ages and how difficult it is to handle it at such a young age. My memory recalls on patient mentioning how she really felt about the trauma she experienced in her life but how she was not able to admit that until her parents brought her into the facility.  This moment gravitated me toward wanting to help, especially children, teenagers, and young adults. Seeing children and young adults motivated to improve their life but just needing a little guidance is what makes me want to help them so much. Mental Health is not something we are taught at that young of an age, let alone something we can fix by ourselves. I’d rather see young children enjoy their childhood than stress on their mental health, therefore that’s what motivated me to be as helpful as I can to our younger generations. 

Personal Confidence

Another important quality I work on and hope to completely obtain very soon is the sense of personal confidence.  In my life, confidence has been something that fluctuates depending on my state of mind. However, the biggest confidence I needed was to believe in myself when it comes to my future. All of my life, I was depicted to be a doctor like my parents so I ended up going to college with the hopes of eventually attending medical school and getting an M.D. However, one experience I remember was when I was accepted into a study abroad medical program where we shadowed doctors in another country for a month.  During that month, I had more fun touring the city than watching the doctors for eight hours a day. This experience that I thought would give me a lot of incite on my future career made me realize that this is not the career for me. This is the career everyone wanted me to have. Therefore, having personal confidence is knowing my true identity and what I really want for myself is a skill that I may have attained a bit late but has still helped me realize that it is a skill everyone needs in order to live a happy, successful life that you personally imaged.